Article from Reason by Scott Shackford.
Jeffrey Sumpter, 21, was attacked by three juveniles at the Dunkin’ Donuts where he worked in Norwalk, Connecticut, last October. On Monday he was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in jail because he decided to defend himself.
Nobody seems to dispute that Sumpter is not the aggressor here, but the victim. Three juveniles entered the bakery and attacked Sumpter. The fight spilled outside and Sumpter, who had a knife, stabbed one of his attackers.
And that’s where things went wrong for Sumpter. Connecticut does allow citizens to defend themselves. But its law also includes a “duty to retreat” from attackers if it’s feasible to do so. There are several important exceptions—people don’t have to retreat from their home or from their place of work. If Sumpter had stayed in his Dunkin’ Donuts he could have been covered.
But he went outside, and so according to the letter of the law in Connecticut, what happened was first-degree felony assault. According to the Connecticut Post, Judge John Blawie even said he believed Sumpter’s version of the events and that he was defending himself. But the law is the law, the judge says. Off to jail.
Read the entire article at Reason.
Image Credit: By Cory Doctorow (Flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The lawmakers are so stupid and incompetence its hard to believe were Americans anymore. No common sense .
Sounds like a good case for a presidential pardon
I agree.
I am all for defending ones self. I admit i do not know details of this case. Why did the man go outside where attackers were? He seems to have placed his life in grester danger.
Maybe circumstances in this particular warranted arrest
well.
as the old saying goes.
I’D RATHER BE JUDGED BY 12, THAN BE CARRIED BY 6.
and this young man should NEVER BEEN CHARGED PERIOD.
The judge is the one that should be in jail !!! That is one STUPID law. Must have been written up by a democrat.
I feel sorry for the DD employee, but he did not need to chase the thugs outside. This was the time to call the cops.
outrageous judge….he needs to create justice by just judgement
So, what happened to the three thugs? Did they get arrested? The article didn’t state.