Opinion ID: 791857
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Imperfect Self-Defense Instruction

Text: 108 California recognizes imperfect self-defense in homicide cases where the killing resulted from an actual but unreasonable belief in the necessity to defend against imminent peril to life or great bodily injury. CALJIC No. 5.17 (1995); see In re Christian S., 7 Cal.4th 768, 771, 30 Cal.Rptr.2d 33, 872 P.2d 574 (1994) (discussing imperfect self-defense). If imperfect self-defense is established, the defendant can be guilty of no more than manslaughter because the requisite malice necessary for murder is absent. Id. Though a reasonable person need not view the peril as imminent, the defendant must make some showing that he actually believed the peril to be imminent. Id. The fear, no matter how great, cannot be of prospective danger or even one that is in the near future. Id. at 783, 30 Cal.Rptr.2d 33, 872 P.2d 574. Rather,  [a]n imminent peril is one that, from appearances, must be instantly dealt with.  Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). 109 Under California law, a defendant is entitled to a jury instruction only if substantial evidence, or evidence sufficient to deserve consideration by the jury, supports the giving of that instruction. People v. Barton, 12 Cal.4th 186, 201 & n. 8, 47 Cal.Rptr.2d 569, 906 P.2d 531 (1995) (internal quotation marks omitted). The state trial court conducted an extensive hearing to determine whether the imperfect self-defense instruction was warranted, and concluded that, taking Erik's version of the circumstances as true, there was not substantial evidence of a belief that the danger was imminent. Accordingly, the court declined to give the imperfect self-defense instruction. 110 The California Court of Appeal affirmed, concluding that there was no error in the trial court's decision not to give the instruction because the defense presented insufficient evidence under California law of a belief in imminent peril. Because Erik and Lyle left the house after the confrontation, went to the car, retrieved their shotguns, reloaded their guns with better ammunition, reentered the house, burst through the doors and began shooting their unarmed parents, the court concluded that there was no substantial evidence of a belief in imminent peril. The court placed special emphasis on Erik's testimony that Erik knew the danger to be in the future. Furthermore, the California Court of Appeal concluded that even if the trial court erred in failing to give the instruction, the omission was harmless because the jury necessarily resolved the question posed by the proposed instruction adversely to Petitioners. 111 The court's determination that this instruction was not appropriate and the state appellate court's affirmance of that decision resulted from interpretation of state law. Any error in the state court's determination of whether state law allowed for an instruction in this case cannot form the basis for federal habeas relief. Estelle, 502 U.S. at 67-68, 112 S.Ct. 475. The state court carefully applied state law principles and factually similar state cases and determined that no instruction was available to Petitioners because they failed to provide a basis upon which the instruction could be given. Quite simply, that should be the final word on the subject. However, because Petitioners argue that the refusal to instruct violated federal due process, we press forward. 6 112 Failure to give [a jury] instruction which might be proper as a matter of state law, by itself, does not merit federal habeas relief. Miller v. Stagner, 757 F.2d 988, 993 (9th Cir.1985). The Supreme Court has stated instead that a claim that a court violated a petitioner's due process rights by omitting an instruction requires a showing that the error so infected the entire trial that the resulting conviction violate[d] due process. Henderson v. Kibbe, 431 U.S. 145, 154, 97 S.Ct. 1730, 52 L.Ed.2d 203 (1977) (quoting Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U.S. 141, 147, 94 S.Ct. 396, 38 L.Ed.2d 368 (1973)). In addition, a state trial court's finding that the evidence does not support a claim of imperfect self-defense is entitled to a presumption of correctness on federal habeas review. Hartman v. Summers, 120 F.3d 157, 161 (9th Cir.1997). Because we agree with the state court's finding that Petitioners failed to demonstrate that they believed they were in imminent peril, we conclude that there was no error and thus that Petitioners' due process rights were not violated. 113 Petitioners contend that the state court failed to consider various categories of evidence that they assert supported their requested imperfect self-defense instruction. Specifically, Petitioners argue that the court ignored evidence that they were threatened with harm if they ever disclosed the abuse, as well as evidence of the confrontations leading up to the murders and Erik's testimony that he feared his parents might kill him. This argument fails because none of the evidence, including evidence of the abuse Petitioners allegedly suffered at the hands of their parents, or even the details concerning the confrontation that occurred the night of the attack before the victims and Petitioners retired to different locations, supported the imperfect self-defense instruction. 114 Indeed, the defense did present evidence that Jose had repeatedly abused his sons and that Kitty had acquiesced, for most of their lives. Erik testified that Jose had threatened to kill him if he revealed the sexual abuse. According to Erik, there had been several confrontations between Jose, Lyle, and Erik days before the murders. Erik testified at extraordinary length and in incredible detail about his childhood and his relationships with his parents, beginning with his allegations that his father began sexually molesting him at the age of six and following through incident by incident until he was eighteen. Erik testified that in the days leading up to the murders, he had some fear that, at some point, his parents would kill him — a fear that fluctuated in intensity during those final days. 115 Petitioners' focus on this evidence, however, is misplaced. Taken at face value, this background evidence served only to explain why the brothers might have had an unreasonable fear of their parents at the moment they killed them. At most, the evidence illustrated that Erik and Lyle 7 feared that their parents had the capacity to and might, at some point, harm them. Erik's testimony about his general fear in the days leading up to the murder does not provide any evidence that, at the moment he shotgunned his parents to death, he feared he was in imminent peril. 116 Even Erik's assertion that he feared his parents would kill him when they exited the room is insufficient to support the instruction. He testified that he just wanted to get to the den as quickly as possible before my father got out of the den. If my dad got out of the den before I got there, it was over. But Erik admitted that the danger was in the future. He knew that his parents could not kill him through the walls. He knew that they would not kill me until they exited the den. Taking Erik's testimony as true, these killings were, in effect, preemptive strikes. 117 Thus, the instruction was not warranted under California law. 8 Had either Erik or Lyle presented evidence that, at the moment of the killings, they had an actual fear in the need to defend against imminent peril to life or great bodily injury, this evidence would have helped explain why they had that unreasonable fear. Nonetheless, the fears leading up to the murders and the reasons why such fears might have existed simply are not the threshold issue for California's imperfect self-defense instruction. In re Christian S., 7 Cal.4th at 783, 30 Cal.Rptr.2d 33, 872 P.2d 574. Consequently, the state court's decision was not error, let alone a violation of due process. 118