Court Opinion

ID: 9631009
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:26:49.741554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:06:58.028473
License: Public Domain

Utter, J.
(dissenting)—I dissent to part II A of the majority opinion. The majority asserts that the self-defense instruction was properly refused because self-defense is not one of the statutory defenses listed in former RCW 9A.32-.030(1)(c). Without explicitly saying so, the majority holds that the statutory defenses specifically enumerated in the felony murder statute are exclusive. This holding is incorrect.
The Washington Legislature has specifically provided for a statutory claim of self-defense against any homicide charge.20 Homicide includes any murder.21 Felony murder is not a separate crime from murder; it is but one way of committing the crime of murder. State v. Powell, 34 Wn. App. 791, 794, 664 P.2d 1 (1983). Therefore felony murder is a homicide and selfdefense is applicable.
The more difficult question is whether Dennison was entitled to a self-defense instruction on the facts of this *630case. The defense is available only if he in good faith withdrew in such a manner as to have clearly advised his adversary that he was in good faith desisting, or intending to desist, from further aggressive action. State v. Craig, 82 Wn.2d 777, 783, 514 P.2d 151 (1973). The trial court refused the instruction because, in its view, the fact that he held a gun in his hand precluded a jury from finding justifiable homicide.
The record reveals that the defendant was the aggressor when he attempted armed burglary. However, the decedent, Mr. Stracner, did not live at the home the defendant was burglarizing. Stracner was not a homeowner defending his own property when he armed himself and confronted the defendant. Nonetheless, Stracner had a right to defend himself when the defendant drew his gun.
Stracner's use of deadly force in self-defense would not be justified, however, if Dennison withdrew within the meaning of Craig. Under those circumstances Stracner's use of his gun would be unjustified and Dennison's right to self-defense would be revived. The record reflects that Dennison arguably withdrew from his initial aggression when he pointed his gun toward the ground, told the decedent he meant nojharm and that he did not take any drugs, and released his grip from the decedent's gun. Whether those acts amounted to a withdrawal such that Dennison's shooting of Stracner was justifiable is a question for the jury to decide. Rowe v. United States, 164 U.S. 546, 557, 41 L. Ed. 547, 17 S. Ct. 172, 175 (1896).
To properly raise the issue of self-defense, there need be only some evidence admitted which tends to prove a killing was done in self-defense. State v. McCullum, 98 Wn.2d 484, 488, 656 P.2d 1064 (1983). The State's argument that the defendant did not meet this burden because he did not withdraw from the felony is incorrect and confuses two distinctly different concepts of withdrawal. The first concept is whether the defendant withdrew from the felony sufficiently to terminate the felony murder. The second is whether the defendant withdrew from being the aggressor *631sufficiently to revive the right of self-defense. 2 C. Torcia, Wharton on Criminal Law § 148 (14th ed. 1979); Annot., What Constitutes Termination of Felony for Purpose of Felony-Murder Rule, 58 A.L.R.3d 851 (1974). While it is true the defendant had not withdrawn from the felony, the issue under consideration in this case is whether he withdrew as the aggressor and revived his right of self-defense.
The Court of Appeals opinion is incorrect in its claim that self-defense is not available to the defendant as a matter of law. State v. Dennison, 54 Wn. App. 577, 582, 774 P.2d 1237 (1989). The Court of Appeals takes the position that the defendant can only claim self-defense where the self-defense negates the intent element of the crime. This is not a correct statement of the law. The court's reliance on State v. Acosta, 101 Wn.2d 612, 616, 683 P.2d 1069 (1984) to support its position is mistaken. Acosta's discussion of self-defense as negating an element of the underlying crimes relates only to the allocation of the burden of proof. Acosta, at 616. The Acosta court was not concerned with whether the claim of self-defense was available, but only with who bore the burden of proving that claim. In this case, however, the allocation of the burden of proof in proving self-defense is not at issue. Instead, the issue here is whether the claim of self-defense is available.
To further support their intent analysis, the Court of Appeals quotes People v. Burns, 686 P.2d 1360, 1362 (Colo. Ct. App. 1983) for the proposition that
[t]he felony murder statute requires only that the death of a person result in furtherance of the commission of a felony. Thus, the affirmative defense of self-defense may properly be raised only as it pertains to the underlying felony, and not to the resulting death.
Dennison, 54 Wn. App. at 582. The Burns court relies on a case in which the felony murder rule was abolished, and the quoted statement was used by that court to denounce the felony murder rule's lack of individual culpability for criminal responsibility. See People v. Aaron, 409 Mich. 672, 299 *632N.W.2d 304 (1980). Aaron cites no authority for the proposition that a person charged with felony murder is only allowed to raise self-defense as a defense to the mental element of the underlying crime. Burns cites no authority other than Aaron. 686 P.2d at 1362. The Burns court and the Court of Appeals, therefore, base their intent analysis on questionable authority.
The second foundation of the Court of Appeals analysis is that other jurisdictions uniformly deny the self-defense claim on the ground that self-defense is unavailable as a matter of law in felony murder prosecutions. They rely on the general rule that one who provokes an encounter as a result of which he finds it necessary to use deadly force to defend himself is guilty of unlawful homicide and cannot claim self-defense. After stating the general rule, however, the Court of Appeals fails to discuss the applicability of the revival exception to the general rule. The well-recognized exception to the rule is:
Although a defendant has become the aggressor by provoking an encounter, if in good faith he withdraws from the affray and so informs his adversary, but the latter continues the conflict, the right to kill in self-defense is revived in the defendant.
2 C. Torcia, Wharton on Criminal Law § 135, at 157 (14th ed. 1979).
We adopted the revival theory of self-defense in State v. Craig, 82 Wn.2d 777, 783, 514 P.2d 151 (1973). In Craig, we wrote:
It is the rule that one who was the aggressor or who provoked the altercation in which he killed the other person engaged in the conflict, cannot successfully invoke the right of self-defense to justify or excuse the homicide, unless he in good faith had first withdrawn from the combat at such a time and in such a manner as to have clearly apprised his adversary that he in good faith was desisting, or intended to desist, from further aggressive action. . . .
*633(Italics mine.) 82 Wn.2d at 783; see also State v. Wilson, 26 Wn.2d 468, 480, 174 P.2d 553 (1946); State v. McConaghy, 84 Wash. 168, 170, 146 P. 396 (1915).22
The United States Supreme Court has also recognized the revival theory of self-defense. In Rowe v. United States, supra, the accused kicked the deceased during an argument. The accused then backed away. The deceased pulled a knife and came at the accused, who then pulled a gun and shot the other man. The Court held that, if the jury believed the defendant intended to withdraw from the aggression, then he had a right to use self-defense to repel the knife attack. 164 U.S. at 557.23 The rationale for the revival theory is that a person acting in self-defense may only use as much force as is necessary to defend himself from the perceived threat. This premise has support in ornease law. See State v. Hill, 76 Wn.2d 557, 566, 458 P.2d 171 (1969); State v. Brigham, 52 Wn. App. 208, 210, 758 P.2d 559 (1988).
In Brigham, the defendant and the deceased were involved in a fight in which the deceased was initially the principle aggressor. The defendant then pulled a knife and stabbed the deceased. The Court of Appeals held that the defendant may have been initially justified in using force in self-defense. His use of the knife, however, was excessive force negating his right to a self-defense instruction. 52 Wn. App. at 210. In other words, the defendant's use of the knife was unjustified.
In this case, if the jury believed defendant's testimony, it could conclude that the deceased was not justified in shooting at the defendant. The record reflects that the *634defendant presented evidence arguably showing that he withdrew from his initial aggression. He pointed his gun toward the ground, told the decedent he meant him no harm and that he did not take any drugs, and released his grip from the decedent's gun. Under those circumstances the defendant's right to self-defense was an issue the jury should have been able to consider.
RCW 9A.16.050 specifically makes self-defense a statutory defense to a charge of homicide. Felony murder is a homicide and therefore the statute is applicable. The trial court refused the self-defense instruction because, in its view, the fact that the defendant held the gun in his hand precluded a jury from finding justifiable homicide. The trial court erred in its refusal to instruct on the issue. The question of whether the defendant sufficiently withdrew from his initial aggression so as to make the homicide justifiable is a question for the jury to decide.
The case should be reversed and remanded for a new trial.
Smith, J., concurs with Utter, J.

 "Homicide is also justifiable when committed either:
"(1) In the lawful defense of the slayer, or his or her husband, wife, parent, child, brother, or sister, or of any other person in his presence or company, when there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design on the part of the person slain to commit a felony or to do some great personal injury to the slayer or to any such person, and there is imminent danger of such design being accomplished; or
"(2) In the actual resistance of an attempt to commit a felony upon the slayer, in his presence, or upon or in a dwelling, or other place of abode, in which he is." RCW 9A.16.050.

”Homicide is the killing of a human being . . . and is either (1) murder, (2) homicide by abuse, (3) manslaughter, (4) excusable homicide, or (5) justifiable homicide." RCW 9A.32.010.

In McConaghy, this court approved a jury instruction that read: "'An accused person who is an aggressor in an affray . . . cannot invoke the doctrine of self-defense or be justified in shooting to prevent injury, unless before such shooting, [he] in good faith sought and endeavored to withdraw from and abandon the conflict.'" 84 Wash, at 170-71.

Numerous other states have also adopted the revival theory of self-defense. See Annot., Comment Note: Withdrawal, After Provocation of Conflict, as Reviving Right of Self-Defense, 55 A.L.R.3d 1000 (1974).