A New York Metropolis man is dealing with a number of years in jail after killing somebody who’d damaged into his condominium.
However maybe most fascinating is that, at his arraignment final month, prosecutors didn’t dispute that LaShawn Craig acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Timothy Jones. As a substitute, they hit Craig with a number of expenses associated to the legal possession of a weapon, as a result of he didn’t have a license for the handgun he used to guard himself.
On November 17, Craig, who has no legal historical past, was standing exterior his constructing speaking to a neighbor when he heard his dwelling alarm go off. After returning to his residence, he discovered Jones—sporting a masks and gloves—who, after Craig ordered him to depart, reached into his pocket. (It was later decided that he had a Taser.) Craig then fired a number of photographs, after which he known as 911.
Regulation enforcement reportedly labeled the taking pictures a “justified murder.” Whereas clearly a tragic state of affairs, that is clearly the proper determination. Which additionally makes the federal government’s option to prosecute him for legal possession of a weapon, a violent felony, all of the extra preposterous. Put otherwise, Craig ought to spend years in jail, legislation enforcement says, not as a result of he used his weapon improperly, however as a result of he used it with out first leaping by way of the obstacles—that are each time consuming and financially burdensome—required to register a gun with the federal government.
Craig is much from the primary such defendant. This previous summer season, Charles Foehner, an aged New York Metropolis man, shot a person making an attempt to mug him. Quickly after, he discovered that prosecutors would search to have him die in prison. But it surely wasn’t as a result of he hadn’t acted in self-defense. He had, the proof of which was caught on video. It was as a result of police searched his condominium after the taking pictures and located that solely a few of his weapons have been licensed with the federal government.
Jones, whom Craig killed, reportedly had over 20 prior arrests for grand larceny, theft, and home violence, amongst different convictions; Cody Gonzalez, whom Foehner killed, had at the least 15 prior arrests. Neither Craig nor Foehner has a legal file. And but Foehner, if convicted on all expenses, would go to jail for far longer than Gonzalez would have had he survived.
Opposition to New York’s gun licensing scheme has, refreshingly, attracted some unusual bedfellows. The 2022 Supreme Court docket ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen paralyzed elements of New York’s restrictive licensing guidelines governing hid carry. Amongst these cheering that outcome: progressive attorneys.
The 12 months prior, The Black Attorneys of Authorized Assist, The Bronx Defenders, and Brooklyn Defender Providers submitted an amicus temporary, asking the excessive court docket to incapacitate New York’s strategy to hid carry. As I wrote in June:
They supplied a number of case research centered round individuals whose lives have been equally upended. Amongst them have been Benjamin Prosser and Sam Little, who had each been victims of violent crimes and who are actually thought-about “violent felons” within the eyes of the state merely for carrying a firearm with out the mandated authorities approval. Little, a single father who had beforehand been slashed within the face, was separated from his household whereas he served his sentence on the Vernon C. Bain Middle, a infamous jail that floats on the East River. The conviction destroyed his nascent profession, with the Division of Training rescinding its supply of employment.
Now LaShawn Craig must add his identify to the unenviable listing of people that used his gun to guard his life and was prosecuted for it anyway.
