The Common Law

Last week's column discussed one of the most disturbing scenes in recent sports memory--the brawl between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans. In addition to charges against the players, misdemeanor charges of assault and battery have also been filed against five fans (another fan accused of throwing a chair was charged with a felony). Lawyers representing the fans claim their clients are not guilty, in part because they acted in self-defense.

As last week's column discussed, Texas law says that a person is justified in using force against another when and to the degree he reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful force. Remember that self-defense implies defensive and not offensive acts, so a person assaulted has no right to use greater force than is necessary to repel the attack.

Fans that were seated in the section where the fight happened would have the strongest argument for self-defense if they were legitimately just watching the game. These fans could simply argue that punch-throwing players attacked them and they were left with no option but to defend themselves with equal force (i.e. throwing punches back at the players).

Alternatively, fans who actively tried to get involved in the fracas--including the fans who went to that section of the stands where the fight occurred and those who walked onto the court--probably could not successfully argue self-defense in Texas. This is because these fans were not initially in immediate danger of getting pummeled. The same logic would apply to the fan who threw the chair.

The fan who threw the cup of beer on Ron Artest would also have a hard time successfully arguing self-defense. Texas law states that in some cases the use of force as self-defense is not justified if the person provoked the other's use of unlawful force.

Ultimately, it is difficult to say whether self-defense would be successful, in large part because each fan played a different role in the brawl. Lots of interesting arguments can be made in support of either position.