For Immediate
Release: November 3, 2004
How the 'Make My Day' law cut epidemic
of violent burglary
By Charles Laurence
Sunday London Telegraph
At 3.30am on January 6, 1987, Dr Frank Sommer, a dentist
in Tulsa, Oklahoma, woke to the sound of his garage door
opening. He looked at the clock, mentally scolded his son,
then 18, or his daughter 20, for getting home so late, and
waited for the sound of their footsteps downstairs.
"After a few minutes, I thought that it was odd that
I had heard nothing more. I took the gun from my nightstand,
left my wife fast asleep and went downstairs to make sure
everything was OK," he recalled yesterday.
What happened next was an experience of pure terror. As
he looked through the peep-hole from the kitchen into the
garage, he saw two strange men. One was pilfering from his
wife's car: the other was standing at the opened door, by
the tool racks.
Just as he stepped through the door to challenge the intruders,
the lights went out. "It was total darkness and suddenly
I was very, very scared. I fired one shot and yelled a warning.
I saw one figure run off and as I went towards the driveway
I saw a body in the doorway. 'Oh no!' I thought. 'He's dead.'
"
In those few seconds Dr Sommer, 66, had been plunged into
a case that changed the law in Oklahoma and may yet influence
a change in the law in Britain. Within weeks of the incident,
the Oklahoma state government passed legislation that became
known as the Make My Day Law, named for the celebrated scene
in the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry film.
The law was pushed through by Sen Charles Ford, a Republican,
the opposition party in the state.
"The purpose of the law is to protect the victim of
crime who defends his home and his family against unlawful
intrusion from any criminal prosecution or civil action,"
Sen Ford said last week.
"We considered it outrageous that someone who protects
his home and family should suffer. Our law says you can
use any force, including deadly force, to defend your home."
It has been an unqualified success. Since the Make My Day
Law came into force, burglary has declined by almost half
in Oklahoma. In 1987, there were 58,333 cases; in 2000,
just 31,661.
While crime rates throughout America fell in the 1990s,
Make My Day supporters point to a second statistic in Oklahoma
they say proves the impact of the new law: while burglary
rates plunged, other forms of theft stayed constant. In
1988, there were 96,418 cases, in 2000, 96,111.
Similar anti-burglar laws have now been adopted in Colorado
and Arizona. The reason, said Sen Ford, was simple: "The
law works. We were in the grip of a violent burglary epidemic
when Dr Sommer's home was invaded.
"Over that Christmas, we had six people in their 70s
and 80s killed, bludgeoned to death by burglars in their
bedrooms. How were they meant to defend themselves if they
could not legally resort to lethal force?" he said.
Giving householders immunity from criminal and civil action
was also inspired by Dr Sommer's experience. Although he
was taken to the police station and interrogated, the District
Attorney read the public mood over the series of deadly
burglaries and decided against charging him with the killing
of the burglar, Russell Bryant, 19.
An "ambulance chaser" lawyer contacted Bryant's
family and sought damages for a lifetime of lost earnings
on the grounds that the killing was unlawful.
"This was outrageous and focused attention on the vague
state of the law which left the victim of burglary vulnerable,"
said Sen Ford, 73.
Prior to the Make My Day legislation, the law, as it remains
in most American states, sanctioned force in self-defence
and the defence of property, but only on the basis of "reasonable"
response to the violence offered by the criminal. This allows
a baseball bat against a baseball bat, a knife against a
knife, and a gun against a gun - although in theory the
householder should allow the burglar to shoot first.
There have now been at least 11 cases where intruders have
been shot dead in Oklahoma and the householders who pulled
the trigger have escaped any sanction under the Make My
Day law.
While Dr Sommer is a fervent supporter of the law protecting
householders, he said that killing Bryant had left him into
overwhelming feelings of guilt and that for years he was
tormented by the thought that he had committed the "ultimate
sin".
"Every time I go into that garage I think about it,"
he explained. "But I do not regret it. My wife and
children were in our home. I am sorry that young man was
in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that was of his
choosing."
For
more information contact:
Senate Communications Office -
(405) 521-5774
