Court Opinion

ID: 9467846
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:57:53.54974+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:33.362693
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
On the merits of this case, I believe that the Constitution prohibits a state from eliminating the justification of self-defense from its criminal law and requires the state to prove as an element of the crimes of assault and homicide that no such self-defense justification exists. But I also believe that Judge Kennedy’s analysis of Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977) and footnote 8 in Hankerson v. North Carolina, 432 U.S. 233, 244, 97 S.Ct. 2339, 2345, 53 L.Ed.2d 306 (1977) is correct and requires us to affirm the District Court without reaching the merits.