This story was first published June 9th and comes straight from the Cincinnati Enquirer Online edition.
ATTORNEYS SPAR OVER CARS
Oba-killing suspect wants wider self-defense view
By DAN HORN - ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Howard Beatty's already unusual murder case keeps getting stranger. Attorneys on both sides have waged a legal battle in recent weeks that includes a request to expand Ohio law, a reference to the medieval "doctrine of sanctuary" and a debate over the role of cars in modern society. The issue is whether Beatty, accused of killing community activist Kabaka Oba, can claim he acted in self-defense.
Police say Beatty shot Oba to death April 12 as Oba sat in his car across the street from City Hall.
Beatty's attorneys asked a judge last month to expand Ohio's definition of self-defense so people no longer have a duty to retreat from danger if they are in their cars. They say Beatty had a right to protect himself with lethal force if he felt threatened by Oba.
Prosecutors riduculed that argument in a response last week in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
Ken Lawson, Beatty's lawyer, argued last month that the law should regard cars the same as it regards homes - as a place people have a right to defend with lethal force.
He said cars today are more expensive and more like homes than ever before.
Assistant Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier said that description does not apply to the "$250 clunker with obscured license plates" Beatty was driving the day of the shooting. "The defendant's position stands both law and common sense on end," he wrote.
"If the defendant fled to the nearby cathedral after the shooting and attempted to rely on the medieval doctrine of sanctuary, his position would be more tenable than the self-defense expansion he now seeks."
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Since the year 2000, The Black Fist has taught, preached and advocated the use of self-defense.
We continue to beleive in it even to this day.