Court Opinion

ID: 9777288
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 20:06:08.664618+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:51.675960
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge,
dissenting.
Semaire unlawfully broke into the apartment where he had no right to be and killed his wife. The majority reverses the conviction because no charge on self-defense was submitted to the jury.
*532Semaire was charged with murdering his wife. His voluntary confession was introduced. In it he stated that he had gone to his estranged wife’s apartment to exchange her coat for some of his jewelry. The apartment was leased to the deceased; Se-maire had no interest in it. When he knocked on her door, the deceased told him to leave the coat at the apartment complex office. When he told her that the matter should be settled as adults, she replied that if he did not leave she would start shooting. Appellant then broke the door down with his shoulder and entered the apartment, stumbling in the process, and as he entered, he saw her raise her hands and he started shooting. He testified at trial he thought his wife was about to shoot him when he saw her raise her hands.
V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 9.32, sets forth the necessary requirements for self-defense:
“A person is justified in using deadly force against another:
“(1) if he would be justified in using force against the other under Section 9.31 of this code;
“(2) if a reasonable person in the actor’s situation would not have retreated; and
“(3) when and to the degree he reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary:
“(A) to protect himself against the other’s use or attempted use of unlawful deadly force; or
“(B) to prevent the other’s imminent commission of aggravated kidnapping, murder, rape, aggravated rape, robbery, or aggravated robbery.”
According to the confession, when the deceased threatened to kill Semaire, he was in no immediate danger. He was given the alternative of leaving. By his own testimony, he chose to break the door down and force his way into the apartment where he had no right to be. It cannot be said that a reasonable person would not retreat under those circumstances. The evidence did not raise the issue of self-defense. This contention should be overruled, and the judgment should be affirmed.
Before the court en banc.