Introduction
In the United States of America in the most states it is illegal to use a deadly force in defense of your property. Every state differs from the specific law, but the allowance to use a booby trap is almost in all illegal and a person using it is tangible for the lawsuit. Based on the common law the duty owed to invitees is higher than the duty owed to trespassers. The individual has also the duty not to harm anyone with traps with an intention. Pre-planned traps are no legal and are punishable by law. In the country there were highly debates about the topic and comparison to the right to carry a gun to protect you and also use of animals and dogs that can be as damaging as the booby traps. The law regarding to the booby traps can be found in the use of deadly force.
Legal analysis
Common law defines that the user of booby traps and similar devices are civilly liable for the wrongs. Section 85 in the Restatement of Torts (1965) defines that the value of human life and limb outweighs the owner’s interest to protect the land and has no privilege to use intendant force or likely cause serious harm or death unless the intruder threatens death or serious body harm to the user of premises. There is no privilege to install a mechanical device which purpose would be to inflict death or serious harm by giving notice of his intention. The deadly force differs in statutes of every state. The use of non-lethal booby trap can be used. Use of lethal force is restricted to the specific situations that the booby trap cannot distinguish. The use of the sign does not change anything. They are illegal because they indiscriminately targeting everyone. It is not only on a national level that the booby traps are prohibited (Anderson & Gardner, 2009). On the international level the United Nations Convention on Certain Convention Weapons (1980) restricted the excessive injuries done by the indiscriminate weapons among others in the Protocol II also the booby traps. In the United States the Castle doctrine gives the citizens the right to protect themselves and their property. State self-defense laws are seen also in the Stand Your Ground and Duty to Retreat. The Duty to Retreat means that use of deadly force is the last resort. Stand Your ground means that under specific circumstance the persons are allowed to use force in self-defense. Some states have adopted the doctrines, but other are interpreting the self-defense law through the judicial interpretation on a case basis.
There are various cases of the convictions and lawsuits regarding the booby traps. The paper will present the case of Denver, Colorado when in 1990 the owner of a small shop putted in place a booby trap after the shop was burglarized many times in a short period of time. With the setting up the shotgun booby trap the teenage burglar was killed. The owner was convicted of the man slaughter, but did receive probation and was civilly liable in a lawsuit (Anderson & Gardner, 2009). The owner of the shop Philip Connaghan was regretting the decision to setting up the booby trap that ended the life of a 19 year old and was placed in the probation for six years and got the $9.500 fines and restitution. Colorado has a law that allows the use of deadly force to protect the property, but the official interpretation of the District Attorney Office was that it applies only to the people in fear of their life (The New York Times, 1990).
Conclusion
It is illegal to harm or to kill anyone who is in the trespass of your property since the use of force can be used if the life of a person is in the imminent danger. The legal analysis shows it is illegal to use the booby traps and the use of them is not allowed even when the owner is using the signs and notices to warn the intruders. In the setting up the booby trap the use of deadly force is illegally used since it can be used only in specific cases that do not correspond to the sole protection of the property. The indiscriminate technique of the booby traps is right prohibited since it can cause harm or even intentional death and should not be allowed not even with the notice that does not change the context in which the weapon is being used.
Work cited
Anderson, Teryy, Gardner Thomas. (2009). Criminal Law. United States: Thomson Wadsworth.
Convention on Prohibition or Restriction on the Use of Certain Conventional weapons Which may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effect (With protocols I, II, III). (1980). Retrieved https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XXVI- 2&chapter=26&lang=en
The New York Times. (1990). Booby Trap Death Brings Fine. Retrieved http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/22/us/booby-trap-death-brings-fine.html
