N.J. doesn’t use a monetary bail system, but they do release defendants prior to trial if the are not considered a risk to the community, themselves, or a flight risk. There was a hearing on that.
It works the same here as it does in the case where a defendant argues battered woman syndrome. That’s not a medical diagnosis or a legally recognized defense.
That said, a woman who has been abused for some period of time shoots her sleeping abuser. Is that self defense? It would depend on the circumstances surrounding her belief in her safety or future safety. By the law, someone who is asleep is not an immediate threat to your life. You can (in theory) walk out the door. But can you? Doubt is what’s required. Are there enough other facts to make a jury believe that said accused could be in enough persistent fear for her life that a sleeping victim could be a perceived threat? Are there enough facts that the jury could doubt that the accused could safely leave?
I’m purposefully not answering the questions. The intention is to think about the nuances.
Has there been a hearing on that since the arraignment? I honestly don’t remember. There was some discussion about it at the time re: his means to escape the jurisdiction if allowed to be released prior to trial and his threat to the community or lackthereof.
I would assume MB’s legal team could have filed for another hearing on pre-trial confinement, but I have vague recollection of something about that issue from last fall? maybe? that MB’s legal team told the court that he’d rather stay put until the trial. Maybe with the hope that if found guilty of a lesser charge he’d be sentenced to time served rather than have to go back to jail after the trial?
It is my understanding (from Wikipedia) that self defense as well as insanity are both affirmative defenses in which the burden of proof is on the defense to prove the circumstance of self defense or insanity.
Since the circumstances are: a 6’ 2” male athlete procured a gun and drove over to the victims’ residence and placed himself within 4 feet of LK (outdoors), with LK being a 5’ 2” female armed only with a cell phone, I just don’t see enough nuances to make a case for self defense.
He had the resources to decamp to his Florida barn, not to mention take out a restraining order.
Again, I was not making the association you’re making.
That said, no, your Wikipedia reading is not quite right. The burden is on the defendant to produce evidence of either their insanity (by the legal definition, which is not the same in every state) or that their act was in self defense. The prosecution’s burden is then to disprove that claim. Note that I did not say that it is the defendant’s burden is to prove they acted in self defense or are insane. They just have to provide enough evidence to produce reasonable doubt.
The reason that we say the “burden of proof” shifts is because the defendant must put on some evidence substantiating their claim. You cannot simply claim self defense and sit back and make the prosecution prove it wasn’t. But the prosecution must still prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you did not act in self defense or were insane.
It is substantially easier to introduce doubt on the self defense level than on the insanity level.
OK, Barisone drives over, gets out of the truck, and goes within speaking distance to start a conversation. He was behind a chair and partly behind a bush, so to hear better she is the one who comes off the porch and goes to within 4 feet of him.
Even more hilarious than you know, as there is a giant family owned law firm “Sam Bernstein” where his kids and grandkids are now lawyers that advertises on local TV all the time around here, but alas, not a member of that family. I’d be able to afford nicer horses
I considered and was admitted to law school, but I did not want to actually practice law, so I opted for a master’s in public policy, which was more in my field of interest. And now my employment has practically nothing to do with public policy.
I saw this article in the news, my horse is stabled in Long Valley where the incident happened. However we only moved to Long Valley in November 2021, which was a few years after the incident. But I was kind of shocked to read that article in the newspaper…his farm is only 10 miles away from mine.
Astonishing that at a professionally run barn with polite staff and boarders that she would respond the same? Not at all. She just left an environment where according to earlier posters on the forum the BNT started an affair with staff, moved out of his house in order to live with his girlfriend and her children at the same facility while his wife was still there and owned half the business. Then he had to give up a portion of his business for his wife for a girlfriend who ended up with someone new within a year of him going to jail. All of this culminated with shooting a client twice and shooting at her boyfriend once. Edited to correct that they were all in the house until 10 days prior.
Her boyfriend may have saved the girlfriend as well and who knows once he started shooting if he would have tracked down his ex. How many 48 hours and other true crime shows are all about a man killing people because a woman left him. This man lost his wife, a portion of his assets, was faced with losing his girlfriend, somehow I don’t think a client with several horses would come close to provoking the same emotions as the other two. As long as he and his wife were in business, I’m sure they had to do evictions before. New Jersey has a nice webpage on it, even with an immediate eviction for when a property owner feels threatened by a renter. It could have been googled or it could have been a conversation of “hey where is the file on that person my ex evicted back a couple of years ago.” I hope the couple he used for target practice, his ex-girlfriend, and his ex-wife have somewhere to hide out that is secure and have hired security for the end of the trial.
This entire situation is incredibly sad. He destroyed his marriage and his career. He put children in a violent situation. By all accounts of people that knew him, he was usually a great guy. Not anymore. No remorse. No sense of responsibility. Just a spectacular short run of bad decisions.
That barn situation must have been weird and toxic. Boarders and staff loyal to his wife and loyal to him. Lots of barn gossip What a mess. Aging issues? No idea. Thinking of everyone who has been damaged by this including the children, what a sad tragedy.