People v. Martin
California Court of Appeal
168 Cal. App.3d 1111 (1985)
- Written by Carolyn Strutton, JD
Facts
Paul Martin (defendant) was a deputy sheriff who lived next door to his son. One night while Martin was off-duty and knew his son’s house was unoccupied, Martin heard noises and went outside to investigate. Martin saw two young men breaking into his son’s house. Martin returned to his own house, got his shotgun, and told his wife to call the police. When Martin went back outside, he saw the two suspects fleeing and ordered them to stop. One suspect fell immediately to the ground, but the other continued to flee. Martin fired at the suspect, killing him. Martin was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Martin filed a motion to have the charge dismissed, and the trial court granted the motion. The state appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Hamlin, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,400 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
