Opinion ID: 313996
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: instructions on self-defense and provocation

Text: 8 Appellant's principal contention is that a portion of the trial judge's instructions on provocation and self-defense were confusing when applied to the particular facts of this case and that the judge should have provided clarification. The judge instructed the jury: 9 Generally, the defense of self-defense is not available to one who provokes the difficulty, and it is, therefore, important for you to determine who was the aggressor, the defendant or the decedent. Mere words without more are never considered provocation. 3 10 When counsel were asked whether there were any objections, appellant's trial counsel replied that he had no objection but he requested a clarification because of the ambiguity in the phrase one who provokes the difficulty. He feared the jury might erroneously conclude that, because the appellant was the aggressor in the affray during the dice game-a fact not disputed by the defense-he was foreclosed from claiming self-defense as to the shooting, which occurred more than an hour later. Counsel urged the court to instruct the jury specifically that, in determining whether or not appellant was the aggressor, they must consider his conduct at the time of the shooting, not his actions during the earlier incident at his mother's house. This request was refused. 11 1. We begin by noting that the rule that generally the defense of self-defense is not available to one who provokes the difficulty, is subject to exceptions, and refinements, to explain the circumstances under which the rule should be applied. Thus, a man who is the instigator of an encounter that ultimately proves fatal may claim self-defense if, prior to the fatal blow, he attempts in good faith to disengage himself from the altercation and communicates his desire to do so to his opponent. 4 12 The trial judge omitted the red book suggested instruction that embodies this qualification. 5 However, there was no request for this instruction, and there was no testimony by defendant or anyone else to the effect that he had been the aggressor at the street scene and then retreated, nor was any such version a reconstruction of the incident that should naturally have suggested itself to the trial judge, in the absence of a suggested instruction. 13 2. Coming to the issue of need for clarification of the instruction as given, appellant is concerned that the jury may have thought the judge intended the jury to disallow a claim of self-defense solely because appellant had been the aggressor in the earlier incident at his mother's home. 14 Certainly, the jury could take account of appellant's prior aggressive behavior toward Toliver, and for example, could infer from the earlier assault that appellant harbored malice toward Toliver, or that appellant was more likely to have been the aggressor in the street encounter. 6 They could consider this evidence in weighing appellant's testimony that Toliver instigated the fatal confrontation. 7 15 But of course it would have been error to deny an otherwise established claim of self-defense solely because appellant had previously taken aggressive action toward Toliver. Unlike the circumstances present in Harris v. United States, 8 the incident at the dice game and the street confrontation were not merely stages in an essentially continuous chain of events. In the case at bar, the earlier episode was essentially a one-punch fight. The effect of the disengagement of the parties and passage of an hour's time was to restore them to the status quo ante. Toliver's privilege of self-defense as to the earlier assault had dissipated, and any attack he might launch upon the appellant would constitute unlawful retaliation. Concomitantly, any disability on appellant because of his prior aggression was lifted, and he was able to defend himself against any subsequent attack. Rowe v. United States, supra. When both parties entered the street encounter there was a critical moment, and the jury had to determine which of the two men was the instigator at that time. 16 Standing alone, the concluding paragraph of the self-defense instructions might be open to the construction that appellant's aggressive behavior at the dice game precluded his later assertion of self-defense. When defense counsel focused on the issue, with a request that he said was not an objection, the court said (Tr. 491): 17 I think the whole thing is clear to the jury and when I start ad libbing and explaining instructions without the ability to really sit down and write them down, think them out, I end up likely in trouble where every word, every nuance means something. Now, I don't think there is any chance of this, so I shall not instruct them further in this. 18 This disposition is not without its weaknesses. It was made without even awaiting the Government's submission on the defense request. It is not clear why the judge should have concerned himself with being in trouble because he granted a clarification requested by defense counsel that had some possibility of merit. It should not have been decisive that defense counsel had nothing in writing to offer the court; this, after all, was not an instruction given at the request of the defense, and trial counsel had no prior knowledge of the specific phraseology the judge would use. 9 19 We would give serious consideration to reversal if we were of the view that there was a significant possibility of prejudice. But we think that possibility, in this case, is gossamer. As defense trial counsel put it in requesting clarification, the earlier incident was a slight altercation with a punch. It did not loom large at trial. The essence of the dispute at the trial and in the summation of the counsel was the nature of the street confrontation. The witnesses were examined at length on such matters as whether or not appellant beckoned the deceased across the street; whether it was appellant or the deceased who was moving towards the other when the shooting occurred; whether deceased threatened appellant with the knife; why appellant had armed himself; what were their respective states of mind just before the shooting. Moreover, the possible ambiguity of this paragraph was offset by the context, for the rest of the self-defense instruction (supra, note 3) told the jury to focus on the situation at the time of this occurrence (twice), and to acquit if the defendant used such force as under the circumstances of the case, as you find, he at the moment actually believed and reasonably believed was necessary to protect against serious bodily harm. 20 In essence, we conclude that the verdict reflects the jury's crediting the prosecution witnesses who testified that the fatal shot came when the appellant's gun was advancing and firing on the retreating knife of the deceased. It was on this point that the defense and prosecution witnesses were in conflict, and that the jury had to determine the fact. We could accept the contention of appellant counsel only if we constructed as a serious possibility that the jury supposed they were being told to convict even if they wholly believed defendant in his testimony. 10 And we simply do not take this as a serious possibility. We discern no prejudicial error. 11