Opinion ID: 1348169
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: deadly force instruction

Text: Rincker requested an instruction which asked the jury to consider in its deliberations the matter of justification or self-defense, and which defined deadly force as in Neb.Rev.Stat. § 28-1406(3) (Reissue 1985): Deadly force shall mean force which the actor uses with the purpose of causing or which he knows to create a substantial risk of causing death or serious bodily harm. Purposely firing a firearm in the direction of another person or at a vehicle in which another person is believed to be constitutes deadly force. A threat to cause death or serious bodily harm, by the production of a weapon or otherwise, so long as the actor's purpose is limited to creating an apprehension that he will use deadly force if necessary, shall not constitute deadly force. In this fourth assignment of error Rincker complains that the instruction given to the jury defined deadly force only by using the first sentence of the foregoing definition. Rincker calls our attention to State v. Bridger, 223 Neb. 250, 388 N.W.2d 831 (1986), which held that the refusal to give a requested instruction which defined a word in an essential element of the crime charged was prejudicial error. However, Bridger is inapposite for the obvious reason that self-defense is not an essential element of homicide in any degree. Just as obviously, the second sentence of the definition tendered could have no application because there was no evidence that anyone fired in the direction of another person or at a vehicle. Neither could the third and last sentence of the definition tendered have application, because Rincker did something more than merely threaten to use the knife to cause death or serious bodily harm; he actually used the knife. While the trial court did not use all of the tendered definition of deadly force, it did properly instruct the jury as to when and under what circumstances deadly force is justifiable, including the fact that Rincker could use such force as he reasonably believed to be immediately necessary, although he may have been in error as to the actual danger, if a reasonable person could also have been so in error. The total instructions given the jury correctly state the law in this regard. As noted in State v. Copple, 224 Neb. 672, 699, 401 N.W.2d 141, 159 (1987), quoting State v. Dondlinger, 222 Neb. 741, 386 N.W.2d 866 (1986): Prejudicial error regarding jury instructions may not be predicated solely upon a particular sentence or phrase in an isolated instruction, but must appear from consideration of the entire instruction of which the questioned sentence or phrase is a part, as well as consideration of other relevant instructions given to the jury.... ``All the instructions must be read together and if the instructions taken as a whole correctly state the law, are not misleading, and adequately cover the issues, there is no prejudicial error.'' See, also, State v. Medina, 227 Neb. 736, 419 N.W.2d 864 (1988); State v. Ryan, 226 Neb. 59, 409 N.W.2d 579 (1987); State v. Threet, 225 Neb. 682, 407 N.W.2d 766 (1987).