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5

Alabama's age of criminal responsibility is 14. Juvenile court has jurisdiction younger than that, but that's not a criminal proceeding.

cpast
– cpast

2016-05-02 00:41:17 +00:00
Commented May 2, 2016 at 0:41
2

@Matt, this was burglary, not robbery. Robbery is theft involving use of or threat of use of force against a person.

mgkrebbs
– mgkrebbs

2016-05-02 01:00:43 +00:00
Commented May 2, 2016 at 1:00
2

@cpast ALA CODE § 13A-3-23: (a) A person is justified in using physical force upon another person in order to defend himself [...] from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force by that other person, and he or she may use a degree of force which he or she reasonably believes to be necessary for the purpose. Are you saying that it would be unreasonable for an 11 year old child to believe that an adult who breaks into their house and threatens to kill them may actually do so?

Matt
– Matt

2016-05-02 01:14:14 +00:00
Commented May 2, 2016 at 1:14
7

@Matt When the adult was in the house, yes. When they were running away, no, not reasonable. It doesn't matter if the kid thought they'd come back with a gun; you can't use force to defend yourself from hypothetical future harm, only if you reasonably believe it immediately necessary.

cpast
– cpast

2016-05-02 01:20:31 +00:00
Commented May 2, 2016 at 1:20
6

@Matt for a start this is a Q&A site - I don't have to mount a watertight legal argument. Second, if you read the question and the answer together I have already observed that the OP enumerates when it is legal to use force - the facts do not fit any of those allowed circumstances so "on the face of it" it was illegal. I am satisfied that my answer sufficiently addresses the question. If you feel it doesn't then submit your own answer or ask a question specifically focusing on the nuance you are interested in. The rules of this site are clear: don't ask questions in comments!

Dale M
– Dale M ♦

2016-05-02 01:30:21 +00:00
Commented May 2, 2016 at 1:30

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