Justification for act: homicide or assault

Name: People v. Schuller (2023) 15 Cal.5th 237
Case #: S272237
Court: CA Supreme Court
Opinion Date: 08/17/2023
  • Categories: Appeals, Crimes, Defenses, Elements of Crimes, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault, Mens Rea, Prejudice

Opinion by: Justice Groban (unanimous decision). Justice Liu filed a concurring opinion, in which Justice Evans concurred. When a defendant presents substantial evidence of imperfect self-defense, the trial court’s failure to instruct on that theory precludes the jury from making…

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Name: People v. Bates
Case #: C086471
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 3 DCA
Opinion Date: 05/07/2019
  • Categories: Defenses, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault

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…

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Name: People v. Chestra
Case #: B264462
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 2 DCA
Division: 5
Opinion Date: 03/17/2017
  • Categories: Defenses, Justification for act: homicide or assault

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…

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Name: People v. Sibrian
Case #: A143369
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 1
Opinion Date: 09/07/2016
  • Categories: Admitting/Excluding, Defenses, Evidence, Expert Witness, Justification for act: homicide or assault

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…

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Name: People v. Grays
Case #: A139538
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 5
Opinion Date: 04/15/2016
  • Categories: Defenses, Justification for act: homicide or assault

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…

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Name: People v. Wright
Case #: A139881
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 1
Opinion Date: 12/15/2015
  • Categories: Defenses, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault

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…

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Name: People v. Leeds
Case #: B243376
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 2 DCA
Division: 6
Opinion Date: 09/28/2015
  • Categories: Defenses, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault, Not Guilty by Insanity, Pleas

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…

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Name: People v. Ramirez
Case #: G049935
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 4 DCA
Division: 3
Opinion Date: 01/28/2014
  • Categories: Areas Constitutional Law, By CALCRIM Number, Defenses, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault, Present a Defense

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…

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Name: People v. Zinda
Case #: C072981
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 3 DCA
Opinion Date: 01/27/2015
  • Categories: Admitting/Excluding, Defenses, Evidence, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault, Mistake/Necessity/Duress

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…

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Name: People v. Dowdell
Case #: H037404
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 6 DCA
Opinion Date: 07/17/2014
  • Categories: By CALCRIM Number, Defenses, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Justification for act: homicide or assault

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…

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