Opinion ID: 1556500
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: A defendant has a right to have every lawful defense he asserts presented to the jury.

Text: ¶ 49. A defendant has a fundamental right to have every lawful defense he asserts presented to the jury, even if that defense is highly unlikely. See Chinn v. State, 958 So.2d 1223, 1225 (Miss.2007) (... every accused has a fundamental right to have [his] theory of the case presented to a jury, even if the evidence is minimal.); Phillipson v. State, 943 So.2d 670, 671-72 (Miss.2006) (We greatly value the right of a defendant to present his theory of the case....); O'Bryant v. State, 530 So.2d 129, 133 (Miss.1988) (It is, of course, an absolute right of an accused to have every lawful defense he asserts, even though based upon meager evidence and highly unlikely, to be submitted as a factual issue to be determined by the jury under proper instruction of the court. This Court will never permit an accused to be denied this fundamental right.). According to Abernathy's brief, his theory of defense was first, that he did not commit the acts of which he stood accused, and second, the stated fact that the victim was suffering from a migraine headache and possibly enceinte at the time was material and crucial to the matter of the victim's accurate recollection of the events, among other things, that transpired that evening. Abernathy thus had a right to call Dr. Katz in support of his theory that the migraine headache Tammy had the evening of the alleged assault may have caused her to recollect inaccurately what happened between the two of them.