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Is there any liability for killing a person by mistake? This is the very question lengthily discussed in one of  the  landmark cases of the United States justice system, a very old case, regarding killing a person by mistake.

For those studying the US criminal justice the celebrated case of US vs. Achong is very popular. The facts of this case involved  a Chinese  engaging his business activity in a remote village. Achong and his fellow Chinese friend rented a small tavern for their business and temporary dwelling at the same time. One night, his friend told Achong to go out for a drinking spree outside and may return late after. Afraid of the robbers and thieves in the are, who were rumored of ransacking houses and inns for their prey, Achong placed a lot of wooden blocks and chairs on the door to see to it that the robbers could not just get easily into his room.

Later past midnight, Achong was awakened by a sudden crumbles of knocking on the door. When he asked who is it, nobody answered. This made Achong to suspect that certain bad elements were to get into his room. Then he asked the man for the second time who is he, still, nobody answered. This time time, Achong gave a final warning. “If you enter then I will kill you!”, Achong said. Just seconds when Achong gave his final warning,  suddenly the wooden blocks fell on him just as the  unidentified person appeared on the dark. Achong did not waste time of grabbing his sword and hacked the  man to death just to find out that he killed his friend.

On this juncture, Achong was accused of killing his friend before the court. Achong’s pleaded not guilty citing mistake of fact as a defense. The US court granted Achong’s defense and declared him not criminally liable justifying for his acquital. The court ratiocinated that had it been the facts Achong had believed it to be, that the man in front of him was really a robber, Achong was, by law, justified to defend himself. The wooden blocks that fell on him which he thought  an attack coming from the perceived robber was mistaken as an aggression, giving Achong the right to repel the same by all measure to the extent of killing his aggressor.

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For Western democracies, the right to life is a sacred and perhaps the greatest among the rights conferred by law to anyone; to kill a person is a denial of such right, hence , punishable under the law. However, equally thereto, is the right of anyone else to defend his own life against any threat or form of aggression, thereby, justifying the circumstance for self defense.