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Friday, January 27, 2012 09:04Law enforcers in St. Louis are trying to navigate their way through the state "castle doctrine" law after several cases in which homeowners have shot and killed intruders, reports the Post-Dispatch. Supporters say the law is working, but not all cases are clear-cut, and authorities have struggled with the evolving law. Within 72 hours in September, two burglars were fatally shot in homes on opposite ends of St. Louis. Police said both homeowners were justified. And in early December, an off-duty Beverly Hills detective who lives in St. Louis shot a burglar to death under nearly identical circumstances.
In total, there were seven fatal shootings that involved the castle doctrine or other self-defense laws in St. Louis last year, compared with two in 2010. St. Louis police are changing how they handle apparent justifiable homicide cases in response to the spate of such shootings. In the past, detectives and supervisors in the St. Louis Police Department's homicide unit who thought a homicide was justified would call prosecutors to run it by them, to make sure they agreed. Now every case will undergo a more formal review by the St. Louis circuit attorney's office.
Read the original HERE
