Jocular Take @ Today’s News: A new Defitinition of Self-Defense

Woman admits to stabbing ex 27 times, says it was in self-defense

What might drive a plain-spoken, seemingly normal Arizona woman to kill her lover by stabbing him 27 times, slitting his throat from ear to ear and shooting him in the head? Self-defense, obviously. That’s the claim by Jodi Arias, currently on trial for the 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, a successful businessman and motivational speaker. Prosecutors allege that Arias killed Alexander in a jealous rage after learning he planned to go on vacation to Mexico with another woman. (Arias and Alexander still reportedly hooked up regularly for sex.) Arias took the stand Monday and said that she had killed Alexander only after he “attacked” her. Arias could face the death penalty if convicted. [Source]

New Definition of Self-Defense

The protection of one’s person or property against some injury attempted by another.

A person claiming self-defense must prove at trial that the self-defense was justified. Generally a person may use reasonable force when it appears reasonably necessary to prevent an impending injury. A person using force in self-defense should use only so much force as is required to repel the attack. Nondeadly force can be used to repel either a nondeadly attack or a deadly attack. Deadly Force may be used to fend off an attacker who is using deadly force but may not be used to repel an attacker who is not using deadly force.

Stabbing someone 27 times, slitting their throat and then shooting them twice in the head isn’t self defense. The man was supposedly abusive towards her, and I don’t know how true that was. What kind of abuse was it, and was it abuse that necessitated self defense. Was she hit. Did she have bruises on her, was there physical signs of struggle?

Defense attorneys are trying to use the fact that there was porn in the dude’s laptop and that that morning he watched some scantily clad women dance on youtube to create a case that he was obsessed with sex or looking at sexual content. The defense has spent the past week presenting evidence that Alexander kept up appearances of being a devout Mormon and a virgin in his social life, but had an erotic sex life with Arias that included sending her a lewd picture of himself, phone sex, anal sex, oral sex, and taking nude photos of one another in sexual positions.

What do you think? This dude is a bit of scumbag pretending to be something he’s not. Of course if he physically or in any way abused that lady that was wrong. But I find 27 stabs, then throat slice then two shots to the head to be a bit excessive for a self defense claim ?