Now several episodes into its first season, Oxygen’s docuseries has investigated a number of self-defense cases.
The Big Picture
- Oxygen’s docuseries
Kill or Be Killed
explores complex homicide cases, proving justice isn’t always black and white. - The upcoming episode focuses on Anthony Templet’s self-defense claim after killing his father.
- Despite prosecutors’ pushback, Templet’s lawyer believes the murder was a result of years of abuse.
Many times, criminal cases aren’t as straightforward as the justice system would like. Things are very rarely black and white, despite our brain’s natural impulse to prove them as such. This topic is what Oxygen’s newest docuseries, Kill or Be Killed, has been investigating during its first season. Each episode pulls back the complicated layers of a homicide case, proving that often there’s more than meets the eye, with matters becoming particularly sticky when the person who pulled the trigger (so to speak) claims self-defense. With no one else at the scene to corroborate the perpetrator’s story, law enforcement officials need to put in top-tier work to ensure that justice is served, and the truth comes out.
The production has been dropping episodes since early March, and we’re excited to give audiences a taste of what’s to come from the next installment. Airing on Saturday, April 20, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, The Other Side of The Door follows a young man’s claim that he was forced to kill his father in self-defense. In the clip, you’ll hear from Anthony Templet’s attorney, who stepped up to the plate to help the 17-year-old when no one else would. After phoning 911, Templet told the emergency team that he had shot his father in self-defense. When investigators arrived on the scene, the teenager had no bruises, leading authorities to believe he had committed murder.
Seeing that Templet needed someone in his corner, and convinced that he was innocent of murder, the lawyer says that the case “spoke to my heart,” adding that with no other direct adults in his life, Templet was essentially on his own in the world with his father allegedly making things worse. Speaking bluntly, he says it was “obvious” that Templet killed his dad out of self-defense following years of psychological and emotional abuse. Meanwhile, prosecutors continued to stick to their guns, unwilling to bend on the self-defense claim put forward by the defense.
This Isn’t The First Time Anthony Templet’s Case Has Been Told In Documentary Form
Back in 2022, Netflix dug into the Templet case, with documentarian Skye Borgman (Abducted in Plain Sight, Dead Asleep), covering the case in the project, I Just Killed My Dad. For those who tuned in, the case was an incredibly tricky one for both the defense and the prosecution, as each struggled to fully prove their side of the argument. The documentary did a great job of better explaining the toll that mental and emotional abuse can take on a person as well as the damning dynamics that went on not only between Templet and his father but also other members of the family, painting a fuller picture of why the pair were so isolated from others.
You can hear Templet’s lawyer talk about his connection to the murder case in the clip above and tune in for the latest episode of Kill or Be Killed on April 20.
This article was originally published on collider.com