Justification for act: homicide or assault Archives

Categories: Defenses, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault

Summary

Because the defendant was unaware of the victim's prior threatening conduct, such conduct was not relevant to show defendant's state of mind for purposes of self-defense. During defendant's murder trial, several witnesses testified about past events in which the victim…

View Full Summary

Name: People v. Chestra

Case #: B264462

Opinion Date: 03/17/2017

Categories: Defenses, Justification for act: homicide or assault

Summary

Trial court did not err in failing to instruct on voluntary manslaughter where defendant initially confessed to murder but later claimed he was not the shooter. Defendant Chestra confessed to shooting a former friend and fellow gang member in the…

View Full Summary

Name: People v. Sibrian

Case #: A143369

Opinion Date: 09/07/2016

Categories: Admitting/Excluding, Defenses, Evidence, Expert Witness, Justification for act: homicide or assault

Summary

During trial for resisting an officer, court did not abuse its discretion by allowing expert testimony concerning excessive force where the arresting officer used more than bare hands. During Sibrian's trial for resisting an officer (Pen. Code, §69), the prosecution…

View Full Summary

Name: People v. Grays

Case #: A139538

Opinion Date: 04/15/2016

Categories: Defenses, Justification for act: homicide or assault

Summary

Trial court erred when it refused to instruct the jury that a person using force within his residence against a person who forcibly enters shall be presumed to have held a reasonable fear of injury to self or another member…

View Full Summary

Name: People v. Wright

Case #: A139881

Opinion Date: 12/15/2015

Categories: Defenses, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault

Summary

In murder case, trial court erred in refusing to instruct on provocation and heat of passion based on long course of provocatory conduct, but the error was harmless. Following years of discord and custody battles involving their son, Wright went…

View Full Summary

Name: People v. Leeds

Case #: B243376

Opinion Date: 09/28/2015

Categories: Defenses, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault, Not Guilty by Insanity, Pleas

Summary

In sanity trial, the jury should have been instructed that the defendant was legally insane if (1) he suffered from a delusional state and (2) his delusion, if true, would lawfully justify killing in self-defense. Leeds, a paranoid schizophrenic, killed…

View Full Summary

Name: People v. Ramirez

Case #: G049935

Opinion Date: 01/28/2014

Categories: Areas Constitutional Law, By CALCRIM Number, Defenses, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault, Present a Defense

Summary

CALCRIM No. 3472 (contrived self-defense), misstates the law by directing the conclusion that a defendant who provokes a fight intending to use only non-deadly force, has no right of self-defense against an adversary's deadly attack. Ramirez and his brother were…

View Full Summary

Name: People v. Zinda

Case #: C072981

Opinion Date: 01/27/2015

Categories: Admitting/Excluding, Defenses, Evidence, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault, Mistake/Necessity/Duress

Summary

Defendant was not entitled to sua sponte instructions on justifiable homicide in making an arrest or mistake of fact where he mistook innocent man for a burglar and killed him with an axe. Immediately after Zinda's home was burglarized, he…

View Full Summary

Name: People v. Dowdell

Case #: H037404

Opinion Date: 07/17/2014

Categories: By CALCRIM Number, Defenses, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault

Summary

Trial court erred by failing to properly instruct on intimate partner battering evidence, but the error was harmless. Lincoln and Dowdell were tried before dual juries for offenses arising out of a robbery/carjacking/kidnap incident. Dowdell presented evidence of intimate partner…

View Full Summary

Name: People v. Elmore

Case #: S188238

Opinion Date: 06/02/2014

Categories: Defenses, Justification for act: homicide or assault, Mistake/Necessity/Duress, Not Guilty by Insanity, Pleas

Summary

Unreasonable self-defense is a form of mistake of fact and therefore has no application when the defendant's belief in the need to defend himself is entirely delusional. Defendant, who was mentally ill, stabbed to death a woman at a bus…

View Full Summary