Opinion ID: 2068506
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Jury Instruction on Justifiable Homicide

Text: Rios claims that the trial court erred in denying his proposed jury instruction on justifiable homicide and self-defense. Rios claims the justifiable homicide instruction given to the jury failed to incorporate the subjective test of reasonableness. While this court has stated: [T]he reasonableness of the defendant's use of force is to be evaluated from the defendant's perspective under the facts and circumstances known to the defendant[,]... this does not mean that a jury should not be instructed to apply an objective reasonable person standard for determining the validity of a defendant's self-defense claim. .... This [c]ourt has not rejected the objective reasonable person standard insofar as self-defense instructions are concerned. To the contrary, we have accepted this standard. State v. Luckie, 459 N.W.2d 557, 559 (S.D. 1990). Jury Instruction No. 23 provided in part: The Defendant, however, must have acted upon an honest and reasonable conviction of necessity and a good faith belief that the decedent intended to kill or seriously injure him. The defendant having such an honest and reasonable apprehension of such danger may act to defend himself in such manner and with such means as may seem to him reasonably necessary in view of the circumstances. The kind and degree of force which a person may lawfully use in defense of himself is limited by what a reasonable person in the same situation as such person, seeing what he sees and knowing what he knows, then would believe to be necessary. (Emphasis added.) The jury was instructed to view the reasonableness of Rios' actions from an objective perspective. This instruction accurately addressed the test for justifiable homicide and self-defense. It provided that the jury could find Rios not guilty if he reasonably believed the force he used was necessary to defend himself. Id. at 560. The trial court did not err in denying Rios' subjective instructions. Id.