Law: Trouble with Fighting Back

A Miami storekeeper escapes a manslaughter indictment

Because Prentice Rasheed knew so little about wiring, he avoided a charge last week. Rasheed is the Miami shopkeeper who became the focus of nationwide publicity last month after a booby trap in his store killed a would-be robber. He claimed that he thought his trap -- a pair of metal grates attached to an outlet by an extension cord -- would merely jolt intruders, not execute them. "I don't know the first thing about electrical wiring," Rasheed insists.

A Dade County grand jury believed him and declined to indict Rasheed for manslaughter because he had acted without the intent to...

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