About 160 people gathered Sunday in West Bend to call for a repeal of the Castle Doctrine, a new state law that assumes property owners are justified in killing intruders. On March 3, Bo Morrison, 20, was fatally shot by a homeowner while hiding on an enclosed porch, after police busted a nearby underage drinking party.
The homeowner was not charged due to existing state self-defense laws. Washington County District Attorney Mark Bensen said when looking at that case, he applied both the Castle Doctrine and previous self-defense statutes.
Some have compared the case to the Trayvon Martin case, a Florida teen killed by a neighborhood watch leader.
Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and Wisconsin’s Castle Doctrine are “part of the same spectrum,” local attorney Waring Finke said Monday. “I don’t think that we should be giving citizens that power, whether in-the-home or on-the-street.”
State Senator Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), a sponsor of the Castle Doctrine, claimed people should not have to take time to think about possible criminal charges when faced with someone breaking into their home.
