Return to CALJIC Part 5-8 – Contents
F 5.30 n1 Self-Defense Against Assault: Applicability Of Homicide Self-Defense Principles.
See CJ and FORECITE instructions and notes regarding justifiable homicide 5.12 et seq. for additional instructions and/or issues which may be applicable to non-homicide self-defense. (E.g., FORECITE F 5.12 n3 re: citizen’s arrest.)
F 5.30 n2 Self-Defense Against Assault.
This instruction is not required when the self-defense instructions (CJ 5.12 and CJ 5.30) have been modified to include defense of others.
F 5.30a
Non-Homicidal Defense Of Self Or Others: Burden of Proof
*Add to CJ 5.30:
It is not necessary for defendant to establish self-defense by evidence sufficient to satisfy the jury that the self-defense was true, but if the evidence is sufficient to leave you with a reasonable doubt as to whether the defendant was justified, then [he] [she] is entitled to an acquittal.
Points and Authorities
CALJIC contains substantive law instructions applicable to non-homicidal defense of self or others (CJ 5.30, CJ 5.31, CJ 5.32), but there is no CALJIC instruction on the burden of proof applicable to non-homicidal self-defense. Hence, a burden of proof instruction should be added to the CALJIC non-homicide self-defense instruction. (CJ 5.15 describes the burden of proof in homicide cases.)
It has been held that the above instruction must be given upon request when appropriate. (People v. Adrian (82) 135 CA3d 335, 336-337 [185 CR 506]; see also FORECITE PG III(A), “Pinpoint Instructions”.)
Failure to adequately instruct upon a defense or defense theory implicates the defendant’s state (Art. I, § 15 and § 16) and federal (6th and 14th Amendments) constitutional rights to trial by jury, compulsory process and due process. [See generally, FORECITE PG VII(C).]
F 5.30b
Reasonable Person Standard:
Consideration Of All Relevant Circumstances In Which The Defendant Is Placed
*Add to CJ 5.30:
[See FORECITE F 5.12h and F 8.42 n3.]
F 5.30c
Non-Homicidal Defense Of Self Or Others:
Consideration Of Physical Disabilities
*Add to CJ 5.30:
[See FORECITE F 5.12h and F 8.42 n3.]
F 5.30d
Self-Defense Against Assault Or Any Battery:
Applicable To Battery Without Bodily Harm
*Modify CJ 5.30 as follows [added language is capitalized, deleted language is between << >>]:
It is lawful for a person who is being assaulted to defend [himself] [herself] from attack if, as a reasonable person, [he] [she] has grounds for believing and does believe that bodily injury OR ANY BATTERY is about to be inflicted upon [him] [her]. In doing so, that person may use all force and means which [he] [she] believes to be reasonable necessary and which would appear to a reasonable person, in the same or similar circumstance, to be necessary to prevent the injury OR BATTERY which appears to be imminent.
[Add definition of battery: see CJ 16.141.]
Points and Authorities
The right to resist a battery is not necessarily dependent upon whether or not the battery poses an imminent danger of bodily injury. “[A]n offensive touching, although it inflicts no bodily harm, may nonetheless constitute a battery which the victim is privileged to resist with such force as is reasonable under the circumstances. The same may be said of an assault insofar as it is an attempt to commit such a battery.” (People v. Myers (98) 61 CA4th 328, 335 [71 CR2d 518].) The trial court has a sua sponte duty to give a proper self-defense instruction. (People v. Sedeno (74) 10 C3d 703, 716 [112 CR 1].)
The definition of battery from CJ 16.141 has been included in the above instruction. (PC 242.)
Failure to adequately instruct upon a defense or defense theory implicates the defendant’s state (Art. I, § 15 and § 16) and federal (6th and 14th Amendments) constitutional rights to trial by jury, compulsory process and due process. [See FORECITE PG VII(C).]
F 5.30e
Self-Defense Or Defense Of Others Against Assault
*Modify the first sentence of CJ 5.30 as follows [Added language is capitalized]:
It is lawful for a person who is being assaulted to defend [himself] [herself] [AND] [OR] [ANOTHER] from attack if, as a reasonable person, [he] [she] has grounds for believing and does believe that bodily injury is about to be inflicted upon [him] [her] [AND] [OR] [ANOTHER].
Points and Authorities
See FORECITE F 5.12k.
