Supreme Court Weighs Case of Contradictory Self-Defense Verdict

The Supreme Court is weighing whether to take up the case of a Virginia man convicted of a felony for firing his gun in a mall shooting that a jury also found he committed in self-defense.

Snapshot

Alan Colie, a delivery driver, was acquitted of aggravated malicious wounding after shooting YouTube prankster Tanner Cook in 2023, but a jury still convicted him of unlawful firearm discharge for the same single shot. Colie's cert petition, Colie v. Commonwealth of Virginia, was scheduled for conference today, according to Bearing Arms.

Key points

• The confrontation: Cook, who made content by provoking strangers, followed Colie as he tried to walk away before Colie drew his lawfully carried pistol and fired once, according to the article.
• The split verdict: The jury acquitted Colie of aggravated malicious wounding and the related firearm charge, but convicted him of malicious discharge of a firearm, per Bearing Arms' account.
• The legal theory: Colie's attorney, Poulliard, argues the jury was likely confused by self-defense instructions and mistakenly believed that defense didn't apply to the discharge charge, the article reports.
• The questions for SCOTUS: Colie's petition asks whether due process was violated and invokes a footnote in United States v. Powell addressing verdicts that are logically exclusive rather than merely inconsistent, per the source.
• The outlook: As of the writing, no justice had asked Virginia to respond to the petition, which Bearing Arms columnist Cam Edwards says is "not a good sign" for Colie's chances.

Quick take

Edwards argues the verdict doesn't add up: if jurors believed Colie acted in self-defense when they cleared him of wounding Cook, it's hard to see why that same act became a felony on a different count. He says Colie deserves a real explanation from the courts rather than a shrug, since the conviction costs him his Second Amendment rights regardless of how the shooting itself was judged.

Read the full story: bearingarms.com