Mass. Supreme Judicial Court hears arguments on ‘transferred intent’ in self-defense killings

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday heard competing proposals over whether an attacker’s intent should transfer when a person acting in self defense unintentionally kills an innocent bystander in the defender’s attempt to repel an attack.

At the start of argument in Commonwealth v. Kenneth Jose Santana Rodriguez, defense counsel Attorney K. Kevin Hagan asked the court to “adopt transferred intent self defense, in Massachusetts in 1 of the following possible 2 flavors,” saying one option would be to treat transferred intent as a complete defense and, alternatively, to treat reckless applications as a lesser manslaughter offense. “The first flavor is to adopt transferred intent self defense as a complete defense,” Hagan told the court.

The issue is whether, and how, a defendant who lawfully uses force against an assailant but unintentionally kills a third person should be charged: acquitted, convicted of manslaughter, or prosecuted for a higher form of homicide. Hagan urged the court to recognize either (1) a complete defense when the defender acts without recklessness, or (2)…