Before
the law, the person who shot will be accused of crime but they would be
assumed innocent until proven guilty. Thus, the government has the
responsibility to prosecute the shooter and find out if they had the
right to shoot or not. One of the defenses may be "self-defense" but it
has to be proven in court.
After the law, when the person who
shot says that they acted in self-defense, the crime is defined as the
attack of the person who was shot, because self-defense is appropriate
response in such situation and is not a crime. Therefore, the person who
attacked is first accused of attacking the person who defended
themselves, and the government has to prove that they indeed did attack.
Even though the attacker is pressumed innocent until proven guilty,
when they are dead, the only testimony is that of the defender and they
physically cannot defend themselves (unlike when the alive person who
shot). Therefore, there is never ground for disproving that the attacker
indeed attacked and the case is dismissed.
In the first case we
assume that the attacker's dead was unnecessary and the innocent person
died. The mistake we can do is when we find the defender guilty when
indeed they defended themselves. Thus, we can put innocent person to
jail.
In the second case we assume that the defender is innocent
and the attacker indeed attacked the defender. The mistake we can make
do is when the attacker never attacked and they are the innocent person
who died.
Because in the first case the person is alive and they
can defend themselves, we are in position to disprove any false
positives (the defender was not defending themselves [false] when they
claimed they did defend themselves [positive]). In the second case we
are not in position to disprove any false positives (the attacker was
not attacking [false] when they are assumed that they did
attack[positive]) because the attacker is dead. Therefore the law is
weaker in the second case because in all cases we have to believe that
the attacker indeed attacked - by default we prosecute both crimes
(attack) and innocent people (those who did not attack).
Thanks for helping with my science project!
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