CALIFORNIA PENAL CODE TITLE 8. OF CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON CHAPTER 1. HOMICIDE SECTION 187-199
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=187-199
What circumstances make the homicide justifiable?
Which of these things apply to Greer's actions?
195. Homicide is excusable in the following cases:
1. When committed by accident and misfortune, or in doing any other lawful act by lawful means, with usual and ordinary caution, and without any unlawful intent.
2. When committed by accident and misfortune, in the heat of passion, upon any sudden and sufficient provocation, or upon a sudden combat, when no undue advantage is taken, nor any dangerous weapon used, and when the killing is not done in a cruel or unusual manner.
Greer reports that he acted intentionally. Greer did not act out of accident or misfortune.
So this section does not apply to Greer.
196. Homicide is justifiable when committed by public officers and those acting by their command in their aid and assistance, either--
1. In obedience to any judgment of a competent Court; or,
2. When necessarily committed in overcoming actual resistance to the execution of some legal process, or in the discharge of any other legal duty; or,
3. When necessarily committed in retaking felons who have been rescued or have escaped, or when necessarily committed in arresting persons charged with felony, and who are fleeing from justice or resisting such arrest.
Greer is not a public officer nor was acting by the command of a public officer.
So this section does not apply to Greer.
197. Homicide is also justifiable when committed by any person in
any of the following cases:
1. When resisting any attempt to murder any person, or to commit a felony, or to do some great bodily injury upon any person; or,
The Miller was pleading for her life when she was shot. So Greer was not resisting any of these attempts when he pulled the trigger.
2. When committed in defense of habitation, property, or person, against one who manifestly intends or endeavors, by violence or surprise, to commit a felony, or against one who manifestly intends and endeavors, in a violent, riotous or tumultuous manner, to enter the habitation of another for the purpose of offering violence to any person therein; or,
3. When committed in the lawful defense of such person, or of a wife or husband, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant of such person, when there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony or to do some great bodily injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished; but such person, or the person in whose behalf the defense was made, if he was the assailant or engaged in mutual combat, must really and in good faith have endeavored to decline any further struggle before the homicide was committed; or,
Miller was outside in the alley. She was intending and endeavoring to flee--not commit a felony. Yes, I realize that she had just committed a felony. But when she was shot she was not intending or endeavoring to commit a felony. As such Greer was no long defending himself and his when he killed Miller. Miller was not an imminent threat to Greer, Greer's family, or Greer's demesne--she was actively trying to leave the premises.
4. When necessarily committed in attempting, by lawful ways and means, to apprehend any person for any felony committed, or in lawfully suppressing any riot, or in awfully keeping and preserving the peace.
Greer was not attempting to apprehend Miller. He was trying to kill her.
198. A bare fear of the commission of any of the offenses mentioned in subdivisions 2 and 3 of Section 197, to prevent which homicide may be lawfully committed, is not sufficient to justify it. But the circumstances must be sufficient to excite the fears of a reasonable person, and the party killing must have acted under the influence of such fears alone.
Even if Greer was afraid that Miller was about to do him or his harm [though Greer has not indicated this] it would be insufficient to justify the homicide because a reasonable person must also view the woman pleading for her life at gun point as an imminent threat.
198.5. Any person using force intended or likely to cause death or great bodily injury within his or her residence shall be presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily injury to self, family, or a member of the household when that force is used against another person, not a member of the family or household, who unlawfully and forcibly enters or has unlawfully and forcibly entered the residence and the person using the force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry occurred.
As used in this section, great bodily injury means a significant or substantial physical injury.
Greer shot Miller in the alley, not in Greer's house. So this one doesn't apply to Greer either.
What about Greer shooting Miller makes it a justifiable homicide?
It doesn't seem that any of these apply to Greer's situation imho.
