The Castle Doctrine and Dr. Ossian Sweet

Michigan residents will notice that the official name of the Castle Doctrine Package is the Dr. Ossian Sweet Self-Defense Act. Why is that? Who was Dr. Sweet?

The inspiration for the bill came from the historical account of Dr. Ossian Sweet’s 1925 trial defending his home against the Ku Klux Klan in Michigan. The case began in 1925 when Ossian Sweet, a Detroit doctor and grandson of slaves, moved his family to a neighborhood where they would be the only black family. This enraged the Ku Klux Klan, who and surrounded his home yelling insults and racial slurs. Some of the crowd rushed and shots were fired from the house. One man was killed and another was injured. Dr. Sweet was charged with murder and eventually acquitted.

Dr. Sweet's picture © The Detroit News
"I have to die like a man or live like a coward." - Dr. Ossian Sweet

Famed attorney Clarence Darrow headed Dr. Sweet's defense team. The Klan had at least 100,000 members in Detroit in 1925. Witnesses - white, non-KKK witnesses, testified that the size of the mob attacking Dr. Sweet's house was at least 400 people. You can read more about Dr. Sweet's ordeal and trial here.

Why should men and women protecting themselves or their family from thugs, be they klansmen or some other kind of hatemonger/murderer/rapist/etc, have to face murder charges for self-defense? It was a travesty in Dr. Sweet's time, and it is a travesty today.

That is why we need to contact Governor Granholm to make sure this legislation passes. I am sure it is just what Dr. Sweet would have ordered.

Dr. Sweet's home as it looks today © The Detroit News