Although a thief is hateful, he is also a citizen protected by law. You can design to catch it and send it to the police station, but you can't intentionally hurt it, otherwise you may send yourself in. A similar case happened in Hebei before: because the homemade sausage was stolen repeatedly, the old man was angry and smeared poison on the sausage, resulting in the thief being poisoned.

Is this intentional homicide or self-defense? After the trial, the court held that Wang Laohan's intentional poisoning constituted the crime of intentional homicide and should bear criminal responsibility for it. Why is it intentional killing and not self-defense?

First of all, let's look at the elements of justifiable defense. According to the criminal law, only the following five elements can constitute justifiable defense:

First, there must be objective unlawful infringement. "Unlawful" generally refers to acts that are not allowed by laws and regulations, and whose infringement constitutes a crime, including illegal activities that infringe on people, property and disrupt social order.

second, the illegal infringement is going on, and only when it is going on can it pose a threat and urgency to the legitimate rights and interests, making the defense behavior legitimate.

3. Defenders have defense awareness and defense will, that is, defenders are aware of the ongoing illegal infringement and have the motivation to protect legitimate rights and interests.

fourth, we can only defend ourselves against the infringer himself, even if * * * is guilty of the same crime, we can only defend those who are committing illegal infringement.

5. It must be carried out within reasonable limits. For example, you can't kill others just because they want to commit obscene theft, which obviously exceeds the necessary limit and constitutes excessive defense.

According to this case, Wang Laohan's behavior obviously does not constitute self-defense. He poisoned the sausage, but there is no guarantee that it must be eaten by the thief himself. He may sell it and ask his friends to eat it. To prevent theft, poisoning the sausage may poison others. Secondly, poisoning the thief just because of stealing obviously exceeds the necessary limit and constitutes excessive defense. The five elements are indispensable, so Wang Laohan's behavior can't be considered as self-defense, and naturally there is no such thing as excessive defense.

Secondly, let's look at the constitutive elements of intentional homicide: knowing that one's own behavior will lead to the death of others, and letting or hoping this result happen, infringing on the right to life of others. It constitutes the crime of intentional homicide, and Wang Laohan's behavior is completely consistent. His subjective intention of poisoning is to retaliate against the thief. Objectively aware that their actions will lead to the death of thieves, they still poison them, and they are pursuing and letting go of this result.

Then the court's conviction of intentional homicide conforms to the law. Article 232 of the Criminal Law: Whoever intentionally kills shall be sentenced to death, life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment of more than 11 years; If the circumstances are relatively minor, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years. However, in this case, Wang Laohan has two circumstances that can be lightened or mitigated: < P > Wang Laohan truthfully confessed his criminal behavior from the beginning. There is no sophistry to say that there is no poisoning, and there is no sophistry to poison, which is a frank plot. Second, the victim repeatedly steals other people's property, which violates public order and good customs and violates the law. Although the amount of theft is not large, it can be stolen many times, which can also constitute theft.

As Wang Laohan said, he wouldn't have poisoned the victim if he hadn't stolen it. The victim was at great fault in the occurrence of the death result, so Wang Laohan could be given a lighter or mitigated punishment. Finally, the court sentenced Wang Laohan to 11 years in prison.