A West Virginia lawyer Hiram C. Lewis IV, 41, narrowly lost a race to become the state attorney general in 2008 but has now found himself on the other side of the courtroom charged with malicious wounding and wanton endangerment with a firearm. Lewis is accused of shooting a man at his home in Procious, West Virgina. He is invoking the Castle Doctrine, which allows citizens to use lethal force in defense of their homes. I have been a long critic of Castle Doctrine laws, which have spinned off various extensions for the work place, cars, and other locations. Called “Make My Day” laws in some states, we now have “Make My Day Better” laws allowing people to use lethal force in defense of other property like cars as well as laws like “Stand Your Ground” involved in the Zimmerman case and other cases in Florida.
Lewis claimed the man, Stephen Bogart, tried to break into his home and he shot him in the leg. He told reporters “I was totally within my rights. I was in my home when I made the, when I shot him, after he barged in my residence and busted the door down. It’s in God’s hands now, but we are a Castle Doctrine state.”
However, Bogart says that he was living at Lewis’ house. Yet, Lewis said Bogart was not a house guest or roommate. Rather, he says that he is a homeless veteran he had allowed to live for a week at his camp while he looked for work
Lewis is a sole practitioner who served as the GOP treasurer and ran against Robert C. Byrd for US Senate in 2006. He also lost a bid for West Virginia Attorney General against Darrell McGraw.
These laws are generally written, making it difficult to prosecute homeowners even in cases of mistaken intrusion as when drunken neighbors come into a home.
Here is the code provision:
§55-7-22. Civil relief for persons resisting certain criminal activities.
(a) A lawful occupant within a home or other place of residence is justified in using reasonable and proportionate force, including deadly force, against an intruder or attacker to prevent a forcible entry into the home or residence or to terminate the intruder’s or attacker’s unlawful entry if the occupant reasonably apprehends that the intruder or attacker may kill or inflict serious bodily harm upon the occupant or others in the home or residence or if the occupant reasonably believes that the intruder or attacker intends to commit a felony in the home or residence and the occupant reasonably believes deadly force is necessary.
(b) A lawful occupant within a home or other place of residence does not have a duty to retreat from an intruder or attacker in the circumstances described in subsection (a) of this section.(c) A person not engaged in unlawful activity who is attacked in any place he or she has a legal right to be outside of his or her home or residence may use reasonable and proportionate force against an intruder or attacker: Provided, That such person may use deadly force against an intruder or attacker in a place that is not his or her residence without a duty to retreat if the person reasonably believes that he or she or another is in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm from which he or she or another can only be saved by the use of deadly force against the intruder or attacker.
(d) The justified use of reasonable and proportionate force under this section shall constitute a full and complete defense to any civil action brought by an intruder or attacker against a person using such force.
(e) The full and complete civil defense created by the provisions of this section is not available to a person who:
(1) Is attempting to commit, committing or escaping from the commission of a felony;
(2) Initially provokes the use of force against himself, herself or another with the intent to use such force as an excuse to inflict bodily harm upon the assailant; or
(3) Otherwise initially provokes the use of force against himself, herself or another, unless he or she withdraws from physical contact with the assailant and indicates clearly to the assailant that he or she desires to withdraw and terminate the use of force, but the assailant continues or resumes the use of force.
(f) The provisions of this section do not apply to the creation of a hazardous or dangerous condition on or in any real or personal property designed to prevent criminal conduct or cause injury to a person engaging in criminal conduct.
(g) Nothing in this section shall authorize or justify a person to resist or obstruct a law-enforcement officer acting in the course of his or her duty.
Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2011 4th Special Session
Note the standard is “reasonably apprehends that the intruder or attacker may kill or inflict serious bodily harm upon the occupant or others in the home or residence or if the occupant reasonably believes that the intruder or attacker intends to commit a felony in the home or residence and the occupant reasonably believes deadly force is necessary.” The question is whether Lewis reasonably apprehended that Bogart was there to harm him or commit a felony in the residence if he knew him. The key in the case may turn on the different accounts on whether Bogart was staying at the residence. Some reports state that Bogart was able to show that he had possessions in the home as proof that he was living there.
Lewis does not appear able to pay the $100,000 bail and remains in jail.
Source: West Virginia Recordas first seen on ABA Journal
Matt Johnson, it’s OK if the evidence has been sealed for 75 years; all I want to know is the case name, the citation, and the appellate opinion. If you know the evidence has been sealed, you probably do know the name, jurisdiction and citation of the case, right?
Malisha,
I sure would like anybody’s advice on how to find and read that case, if anybody has more information than I do about it.
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The evidence has been sealed for 75 years.
Woosty’s still a Cat 1, June 16, 2012 at 2:14 pm
Life is a test, ID707. Why did you move to Sweden?
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a test? a test of what????
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Woosty, you’re the cat. Figure it out.
OS,
A former district attorney once told me that if I ever did have to use lethal force, just make sure the body is found inside the house, not outside. I thought that was kind of obvious, but it was good advice. A long time ago, I worked on a case where a city police officer came home from work and found a naked teenager on top of his wife, raping her while holding a knife to her throat. Their four year old daughter was standing beside the bed screaming and crying. He held the young man at gunpoint, marching him down the road a hundred yards or so to a bridge where he made the fellow stand at the railing. He shot him in the back of the head and threw the body into the river. His attorney, the district attorney and myself all told him that if he had shot the man in the house, there would not have been any charges filed against him. His reply was that he did not want to kill his wife’s rapist in front of their child, that she was traumatized enough already.
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This is a bit of a follow up. I would told the kid to go in the other room for a second.
I’ve been napping and y’all been talking.
Magnificent bird, tribe re-built feeding winter-time.
No taper out to the wingtips, where the feathers flare out. Sailed like a majestic dirigible with small gnats around, ravens are in fect large.
Where did I get my judgement? What judgement? Spent most of my life without the social one, and now acquiring some.
Why Sweden? Simple, no friends, no roots, looking.
The purpose of life: Living. In harmony with your needs and others. If life is a test, then I failed the first 74 years. Find yourself, value yourself, that’s the only one you ever have had.
Religion? I could write about that false fraudulent activity. But another time.
Remember what I said earlier Matt: expose thy talents with moderation—difficult task.
There are many other talents here.
I feel Woosty is bursting today. Am I right.
As for the principal; wonder who set him up?
Mslisha is still leading in the “Ultimate Crime Story” contest.
Oh I read a book on psychopaths once. A case history was in there about a young woman who sought psychotherapy because of her family experience. Her father was principal of a school. Their home was burglarized and the father came downstairs with a gun, and ran out the front door, and shot dead the guy who was fleeing from the house (I guess the attempted burglary had set of an alarm or something, so the crime was interrupted).
The father was a paragon of virtue. some mean prosecutor charged him with manslaughter or something because the burglar was unarmed and was running AWAY from the house when shot dead. Big public scandal, etc. etc., and finally, the father was actually convicted and imprisoned.
The daughter visited him in prison and learned that some of the things she had believed about the situation were not true. She also learned that her father was “doing quite well” in prison. She was utterly confused.
THEN there were calls to the home that her mother intercepted. Apparently the information came out that the father, the principal, had been involved in the drug trade, and that the purported burglar was actually coming to the house because of some drug trade activity, but it went down wrong, and the father then needed to kill him to keep it hushed up.
The case was astounding. The daughter became a lawyer. I always wanted to find the case and read it, but the names are hidden and I have never been able to locate it.
I sure would like anybody’s advice on how to find and read that case, if anybody has more information than I do about it.
Thanks.
Someone once gave me a book entitled “Life is a Test.” That book meant to tell me that what happened here on earth, and what I did here on earth, only had to do with whether I would get into Heaven or not.
Oh well, here’s what: If that book is true, then I’m not getting into heaven.
And if that book is a feverish fantasy, I’m also not getting into heaven.
So much for the test.
Life is a test, ID707. Why did you move to Sweden?
——————-
a test? a test of what????
ID707,
Where did you get your judgment? Just asking.
I have never made drugs, and never will.
Life is a test, ID707. Why did you move to Sweden?
‘ a sea eagle”
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now THAT’s a pretty bird….
Matt,
Listen to OS. You sound like you’re on something. Are you a wirehead?
OS,
That was not a challenge, the question on drug use cause. We both know it is complex. Just thought you having a much better position than I, and since don’t have access to the DEA (who would ask them), I asked for a personal judgemet, and got one.
Woosty,
Only Matt Johnson as far as I can tell. I’d top his
story of the crow and the sparrow with crows and a sea eagle, but don’t want to revive him. He may have fallen asleep.
Matt,
You were a first to give me the invitation here, somebody must be first. And you know it IS always the smart ones and the smart asses who are invited to go back or stay where they come from.
But both you and I have not learned that small doses are tastier than large one. I’m trying, are you?
I can make crystal meth anytime I want. Not going to, though. I’m not a chemistry teacher, I’m an accountant. It’s called being objective. Just give me the recipe, and I can do it. And I can find the recipe on the internet.
ok, you guys are all wearing stripes and playing games…..right?
OS,
I’m not endorsing it. That’s why I won’t make it.
Matt, I don’t know who or what peed in your cereal, but you need to dial it back a bit. Of course you can make meth. Anyone with the right ingredients and a recipe can make that stuff, which is one reason we have meth labs all over the place, and why there is so much crime up here in these hills where the worst crimes used to be ETOH-related domestic violence or stealing the neighbor’s pig. Meth nasty stuff that eats your brain, teeth and other organs. You seem to be endorsing it.
Keep it up and you are going to have the Feds backtracking your comments.
Do you people know I can make the Meth drug any time I want? Crystal Meth. Are you in the market?
Oh, my goodness. So is Cocaine.
Hey OS,
Ask the chemistry teacher. You’re full of shit.
Meth literally eats holes in you brain. I’ve heard doctors say it’s not a matter of if meth will make you schizophrenic, but when. There are some things simply not worth trying. Meth is one of them. I have a cousin who got in to it bad. He’s off it now, but the damage is done. It’s not a pretty sight. Meth is evil.