Q: My husband is being charged with attempt murder 2nd degree. It was a form of self defense. Will he have to serve time?
He was assaulted outside a bar . A guy punched him in the face and continued to strike him. My husband had a concealed license, pulled his gun fired a warning shot and then shot the guy who refused to back down . My husband fleed the scene however before police arrived
The state is offering 3 years sentence
He used his weapon as self defense however so is 3 years too long to accept. His current attorney goes months without any contact and my husband has been sitting at county jail for 7 months and no progress.
A: From your account, he should not plead guilty to this case. A note of concern is his fleeing from the scene. If you are not happy with your lawyer, find one that will.
A: Yours is an extraordinarily complex question which is fact sensitive. First off, if your husband doesn’t like his current lawyer’s assessment, he can hire a new lawyer to see how the new lawyer sees it. Second, you say this happened outside a bar and involved a concealed weapons permit. I think you’ll find that such permit are invalid inside a “bar”. Third, your husband may have a stand your ground or self-defense claim, but that is what he needs to discuss with his existing lawyer or his new lawyer. I do caution this may be a 10-20-life case if he were to be convicted as charged with discharge of a firearm.
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