Where I live the "accidental" part doesn't really get you off the hook. Negligence is better than intention but still.

If it kills someone or causes grievous bodily harm, it's still on you. Yes, even if it's a burglar. You also have to think about the fully legal situations when it's firefighter or a cop with a warrant. Or an edge case like a stupid kid.

Where I grew up, problem thieves would just go missing, to be found years later dead at the bottom of a mine shaft.

Well this at least doesn't kill a random person who has to empty your storage for legit reasons and sets off a land mine.

I’m not saying I condone it…

…but I understand.

So that's what happened to Captain Carnage!

Laws against booby trapping and the like are fairly universal. Even without criminal penalties, the liability if you catch someone innocent should give you pause.

Well it kind of depends on what exactly happened. For example there are building codes, like "no deadly drops without guardrails". If you leave something like this then you are breaking the law. If somebody dies because of this then it's on you, even if they were breaking another law.

I'm not sure how you could rewrite self defense law to cover this case.

Notably though, it’s usually civil law. So someone would have to have standing to sue (typically family). And typically more of an attractive nuisance type deal.

So it’s of the sort of thing where if someone is in your house, and falls off something and hurts themselves because of something negligent you did or whatever, then yeah they can sue for damages. Regardless of if they had your permission to be there, because you had a duty to not leave something obviously dangerous just lying there.

But it does lead to a lot of weird/unjust situations - either if the law does exist, or if it doesn’t.

Do they typically stay charged for only a few days at most?

Well, you might need to stop by frequently to visit them.