The Andrew Branca Show

Manslaughter charge has been dropped against Alec Baldwin. We discuss LIVE at 6 PM ET! #alecbaldwin  AMERICAN LAW COURSES Get a law-school level education in typical first-year (1L) law classes, including criminal law, constitutional law, evidence, property, and more, at a fraction of the cost and time of law school, and without any of the political toxicity of today's law schools. Spring sem...

Today's show is prompted by a news report of an Ohio woman just sentenced to two years in prison for having sicced two of her Pitt Bulls on a group of children, resulting in one 6-year-old girl requiring multiple emergency surgeries as a result of bites to her head and body.  There are, of course, circumstances in which using a dog as a weapon could be perfectly lawful.  How does the law dist...

As is common in high-profile, politically- and racially-charged shootings, I'm seeing an enormous amount of bad legal takes on whether the shooting of Ralph Yarl by Andrew Lester could possibly have been lawful. In fact, Missouri law explicitly allows for the use of deadly defensive force under the circumstances in which Lester encountered Yarl, and we'll explore that in today's sho...

In the late night hours of April 13, an 84-year-old homeowner living alone was awoken by someone banging on his front door. Lester prudently armed himself with a .32 caliber pistol, and opened his front door to respond to the person outside.  Before him an unknown 6-foot-tall male, trespassing in violation of several no-trespassing signs, was attempting to force entry through his locked storm door...

Two days ago the defense team for Daniel Perry, found guilty this past Friday for the murder of Garrett Foster, filed a motion for a new trial. Normally such motions are really just a matter of going through some hand-waving, and rarely have any substantive basis for a new trial being granted.  Indeed, most of the arguments made in this motion are rather esoteric or even outright silly. That said,...

This past Monday, Attorney Steve Gosney had me on as a guest on his YouTube and Rumble channels.  I attempted to simul-stream that live show to the Law of Self Defense community, but of course I "boomered" it, and had to cut off the feed to our community after just a couple of minutes. Today I'm sharing with all of you the playback of that show, on the various Law of Self Defense ch...

Today we have a VERY special live guest: Dr. Markus Funk, a law professor and Partner at law firm Perkins Coie. You may recall that back on March 6 I did a show in which I critiqued an academic paper of Dr. Funk's that engaged in a comparison/contrast of US self-defense law with the defense laws of the UK and Germany.  Dr. Funk's key point was that although US self-defense laws were wild...

The past week or so have seen a plethora of self-defense favorable laws either advance through legislatures or actually become law--sometimes having to override a governor's veto! Today we discuss eight states--North Carolina, North Dakota Kentucky, Oklahoma, Missouri, New York, Florida, and Idaho--that have enacted or advanced improvements to the laws that privilege their residents to use fo...

This past weekend a NYC garage worker who defended himself against an armed aggressor found both himself and the aggressor charged with attempted murder and illegal weapons possession.  How could this be possible? We discuss! Join us LIVE today, April 3, at 1 PM ET! LAW CARDS! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lawcards/law-cards Gracie Jiu_Jitsu 101 FREE SEMINAR (Colorado Springs), April 8: gjj...

Yesterday we covered the interesting appellate reversal of the murder conviction of a woman who claimed self-defense in the shooting death of her boyfriend.  She shot him dead under circumstances in which he wasn't in the moment presenting an immediate threat to her.   Generally this would mean she killed in the absence of an imminent threat, which should result in the rejection of her self-d...

On March 5, 2020 Stephanie Clark, mother of a 5-year-old, found herself once again subject to violent domestic abuse by her live-in boyfriend. After inflicting serious physical and mental abuse for some time, the boyfriend threatened to break Clark's ribs after she had fallen asleep. Clark retrieved a gun, shot the boyfriend once, then retrieved a second gun and shot him again. He would die o...

On March 27, 2023 a murderous armed lunatic shot their way into a school and killed six people--three 9-year-olds and three adult school staff. It seems likely that this horrific death toll was no higher only because of the aggressive heroism of the Nashville police officers who flooded into the school and confronted the murderer. In today's show I have on as a very special guest my good frie...

Today we'll take a look at several videos of defensive handgun uses in which the firearm is shot to slide lock--meaning, shot empty. Can this be lawful self-defense, or is it illegal overkill? How many shots is too many shots? LAW CARDS! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lawcards/law-cards Gracie Jiu_Jitsu 101 FREE SEMINAR (Colorado Springs), April 8: gjj101.com NEW! Law of Self Defense AD...

Just a quick live show today to cover some short use-of-force stories that have come across my desk this week, none of which is of sufficient depth for a dedicated show of its own (at least, not yet). LAW CARDS! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lawcards/law-cards Gracie Jiu_Jitsu 101 FREE SEMINAR (Colorado Springs), April 8: gjj101.com NJ v. Macchia:  https://lawofselfdefense.com/macchia NEW!...

A decision just issued by the New Jersey Supreme Court addresses the question of whether a jury has to unanimously agree on exactly how a defender failed self-defense in order to convict him of the charged use-of-force crime. Gracie Jiu_Jitsu 101 FREE SEMINAR (Colorado Springs), April 8: gjj101.com NJ v. Macchia:  https://lawofselfdefense.com/macchia NEW! Law of Self Defense ADVANCED Class! This i...

Retired basketball player All-Star and current cannabis entrepreneur Shawn Kemp got into a gunfight outside a Tacoma shopping mall last week after his efforts to recover the cell phone stolen from his car resulted in an exchange of gunshots.   Although Kemp was originally arrested at the scene after the other party fled, he appears to have promptly and prudently lawyered up, and has now been relea...

Andrea Reeb, the special prosecutor in the case against Alec Baldwin and Rust over the October 2021 fatal shooting of its cinematographer, has announced she is to step aside, in a victory for Baldwin, the UK Daily Mail reports. We discuss THIS, as well as some pending self-defense law changes in Oklahoma and Indiana! #alecbaldwin  Gracie Jiu_Jitsu 101 FREE SEMINAR (Colorado Springs), April 8: gjj1...

In June 2021, Eric Popper was involved in a road rage incident while driving down I-95 in the Miami FL area.  He would ultimately empty his pistol through the passenger window and windshield of his car, in an act he would characterize as self-defense. Popper would be arrested and charged with the felonies of aggravated assault and firing a deadly missile. Last week the Miami-Dade State Attorney&ap...

On March 1, 2023, a Farmington UT police officer pulled over 25-year-old Chase Allan for failure to display proper registration tags on his BMW automobile. Within just a few minutes, Allen would die in a hail of bullets fired by five officers.   In this LIVE show we take a look at some media reports of this report, some initially released body-worn camera footage from the officer who first made th...

A crazed dude and woman violently breach the front door of a home, amidst much shouting and HA-VOC! What are the actual legal self-defense options for the homeowner in this situation? In most states, they're pretty darned good--and Castle Doctrine is not the important legal doctrine in play! NEW! Law of Self Defense ADVANCED Class! This is our full-day course on the use-of-force in lawful def...

A week or two ago, while guesting on Rekieta Law during our relentless and arduous coverage of the Alex Murdaugh trial, news broke that #alecbaldwin  had been relieved of the sentencing enhancement charge that the NM prosecutor had brought against him on top of the involuntary manslaughter charge.  I had taken a quick look at the relevant law just before coming onto Rekieta Law, and while waiting...

Today's show takes a look at the interviews of two of the Murdaugh jurors.  Fair warning: Neither is very exciting, but if I don't cover these I'll be inundated with requests to cover them--so here you go folks.  I advise a more productive way to spend this time, but of course you're all welcome to join me.  NEW! Law of Self Defense ADVANCED Class! This is our full-day course o...

On February 14, 2023, Dr. T. Markus Funk, PhD, published a 10-page paper entitled "Busting the Durable Myth That US Self-Defense Law is Uniquely Harsh."  That paper is the subject of today's LIVE show.  Dr. Funk is a former federal prosecutor, US State Department Section Chief, and has taught at such esteemed academic institutions as Northwestern University, the University of Chicag...

Alex Murdaugh Sentencing: EXPECT THE MAX! #AlexMurdaugh NEW! Law of Self Defense ADVANCED Class! This is our full-day course on the use-of-force in lawful defense of yourself, your family & your property, applicable to all 50 states. We only teach this one AT MOST twice a year, and this is the first of 2023. Saturday, April 15, 2023--PRE-REGISTER TODAY AND SAVE 10%! LAST DAY! Our American Law...

This past Friday a Paulding GA Sheriff's Office dash camera video was released of the March 4, 2022 arrest of burglary suspect Tyler Canaris.  Deupties were responding to calls that a person matching the description of Canaris was attempting to break into neighborhood cars during the dark hours of that early morning.   When Canaris was repeatedly non-compliant with a Deputy's attempt to...