Global Courant 2023-05-01 23:52:26
An Alabama judge rejected a former police officer’s claim that under self-defense laws he should be immune from retrial on murder charges. committed suicide. The former Huntsville officer had asked for a hearing to determine whether Alabama’s “stand your ground” law should protect him from a second trial.
A judge in Alabama has rejected a former police officer’s claim that under self-defense laws he should be immune from retrial for murder.
William “Ben” Darby, whose 2021 murder conviction was overturned in March by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, had called for a hearing to determine whether Alabama’s “stand your ground” law should allow the former Huntsville officer protect against a second trial.
Madison County Circuit Judge Alan Mann ruled against the motion Tuesday without elaborating.
Darby was on duty in 2018 when he shot and killed Jeffrey Parker, who held a gun to his own head. Parker had called 911 and said he was armed and planning to kill himself.
Darby was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a jury convicted him.
Another judge ruled that Darby was not immune under self-defense rules before the original trial. But his lawyers said the ruling should be reconsidered after the appeals court ruled that the trial judge should have given jurors several instructions on how to assess the reasonableness of Darby’s use of deadly force in that situation.
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An Alabama judge rejected a police officer’s immunity after his murder conviction was overturned.
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“If the court applied the wrong standard of self-defense at trial, then presumably the court also applied the wrong standard at the immunity hearing,” argue attorneys Robert Tuten and Nick Lough in their April 13 motion.
Darby’s lawyers have maintained that the shooting was justified because he feared Parker would harm officers. Alabama’s self-defense law says officers have the right to use deadly physical force when they believe it necessary to defend themselves or others against what they reasonably believe is “the use or threatened use of deadly physical force.”
Trial testimony showed that Darby shot Parker, who was sitting on a couch with a gun to his head, within seconds of entering the house. Another officer had spoken to Parker to convince him not to commit suicide, according to trial testimony. She and a third officer at the scene testified at trial that they did not consider Parker an imminent threat, even though he held a gun.
It would later be determined that Parker was actually holding a flare gun painted black, but there is no evidence to indicate that any of the officers knew, the appeals court wrote.
Video from Darby’s body camera showed the officer entering the house and telling Parker to put the gun down before firing.
Darby was released from prison on April 13 and is expected to be tried again on December 11.