Dawkins v. State
Dawkins v. State, 252 P.3d 214 (Okla. 2011), is a legal case involving limitations on the right to self-defense and stand your ground laws.[1] The court determined that stand your ground laws do not justify use of deadly force, if defendant is engaged in other unlawful activity at the time. The case involved a defendant with a right to lawfully protect where he stood, but who used an illegal weapon with deadly force to stand his ground.
The court wrote:
- "[T]he 'stand your ground' law... provide[s] that a person has a right to expect absolute safety in a place they have a right to be, and may use deadly force to repel an intruder... for a person to be justified in using deadly force, the person must not be 'engaged in unlawful activity".
References
- ^ Criminal Law Materials and References, 7th ed. 2012; John Kaplan, Robert Weisberg, Guyora Binder