Is Minnesota a Castle Doctrine state?

Is Minnesota a Make My Day state?

No.

There has been an effort to remove the duty to retreat, though.

Minnesota is a "castle doctrine" state. You have no duty to retreat in your own home.

but you do in your yard

If you shoot in your home, Make damn sure you have no other choice first.

One could die trying to make that decision.

You may shoot in your own home to prevent the commission of a felony, or to protect yourself or another reluctant participant from death or great bodily harm where no lesser force will suffice.

Not all felonies. The list in 609.06 applies, which basically limits it to resisting offenses against the person, or in resisting trespass upon or unlawful interference with real or personal property.

You can't shoot someone for felony tax evasion, even if he does it in your living room.

Ah, yes. "Reluctant participant."

I think it's important for instructors using this lovely turn of phrase to point out, Andrew, that nowhere in the statutes does it say "reluctant participant."

Take a look at 609.065, which reads:



I wonder whether the interplay between 609.06 and 609.065, to which jedge alludes, was intentional by the legislature or merely a product of the the revisor's imagination.

Nope. And what a simple world it would be if the statutes were the sum total of the law.

They are not. Finders of law are bound by precedent, and the reluctant participant test is firmly established precedent.

See this thread for more detail:

http://www.twincitiescarry.com/forum/vi ... php?t=1778

Got a cite?

I believe that you can unless the felony tax evader is a cabinet member.

Ah, but then it's no longer a felony.

Yep.



Notice that this is a limitation on 609.06. not a stand-alone provision. And 609.06 allows for the use of force only in certain circumstances.

609.065 authorizes the use of deadly force only when the use of force is authorized by 609.06 AND when it is necessary in " necessary in resisting or preventing an offense which the actor reasonably believes exposes the actor or another to great bodily harm or death, or preventing the commission of a felony in the actor's place of abode."

And of the list of circumstances in which 609.06 authorizes the use of force, the ones that are most likely to involve the commission of a felony are:



There are, true, other provisions in which force is authorized by 609.06, but they are either circumstances in which there can be no felony offense involved, or which require that you be acting under the direction of a public officer, etc. They aren't generally relevant. (I'm trying to envision a scenario in which someone can be both authorized to use force under 609.06(8) and is authorized in use deadly force under the "preventing the commission of a felony in the actor's place of abode" provision of 609.065, but I'm not having much luck.