[Vision2020] NRA's General Counsel

[Ron Force]

Harlan Carter, the Executive Vice President from 1977-1985, and who led the change in the organization to resist all gun control was convicted of murder:
On March 3, 1931, in Laredo, Texas, Carter, who was 17, shot and killed 15-year-old Ramón Casiano. After returning home from school that day, Carter was told by his mother that there were three Hispanic youths loitering near their family’s property. Carter left his house, shotgun in tow, to confront the alleged loiterers. After finding Casiano and his two companions, Carter pointed his shotgun at them and ordered them to come with him. Casiano refused and pulled out a knife and asked Carter if he would like to fight. Carter then pointed the shotgun at Casiano’s chest. Casiano pushed the gun aside and asked Carter not to shoot while taking a step back. He was then shot and killed. Carter claimed self-defense, but the presiding judge instructed the jury, “There is no evidence that defendant had any lawful authority to require deceased to go to his house for questioning, and if defendant was trying to make deceased go there for that purpose at the
 time of the killing, he was acting without authority of law, and the law of self-defense does not apply.” Carter was convicted of murder without malice aforethought (a crime similar to second-degree murder) and sentenced to three years in prison. Subsequently, Carter successfully appealed his conviction with the appeals court, holding that the trial court failed “to submit to the jury appropriate instructions upon the law of self-defense.” When the shooting incident was reported in media in 1981, Carter initially denied that he had killed Casiano before falsely claiming that the shooting took place on his property.



On Friday, August 1, 2014 5:29 PM, Sunil <sunilramalingam at hotmail.com> wrote:
 

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>I found this story today; it's been out a couple of days now. 
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>http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/robert-dowlut-nra-murder-mystery
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>In 1963 Robert Dowlut, the NRA's General Counsel and a man who has helped shape 2nd Amendment jurisprudence, was charged with murder and tried as an adult at 17. Six years later his conviction was overturned and a new trial ordered. Because tainted evidence was suppressed (correctly, I think), no new trial occurred and he went on with his life. He returned to the military, got out and went to college. He went on to law school, became a member of the DC bar, and has had a tremendously successful career.
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>Neither the NRA nor he and his wife responded to inquiries from Mother Jones; I haven't yet seen any reaction from Dowlut or his employer.
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>I find the story interesting on several levels.
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>It's interesting he was allowed to take the bar exam. No, I think it's remarkable he got through the character and fitness check. Go ahead, make lawyer jokes, but people with DUIs have to make their case to sit for the exam. That's somewhat different from shooting and killing someone, allegedly.
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>I wonder if the NRA knew about it. What will they do now? He was charged with shooting two people the same night, a pawn shop owner he was allegedly trying to rob, and then his girlfriend's mother; the former survived, the latter was killed. 
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>Sunil
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