Foote v. Commonwealth

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that an accused may claim self-defense only if the force employed against his potential attacker was necessary to repel the assault
• finding self-defense as a matter of law where defendant, who was the victim of an unlawful arrest, used reasonable force to repel his attacker, who confronted him with deadly force
• a person has the right to use reasonable force to resist unlawful arrest; rules of self-defense determine whether the force used is reasonable
• a person has the right to use reasonable force to resist unlawful arrest; rules of self-defense determine whether the force used is reasonable
• “[T]he amount of force used must be reasonable in relation to the harm threatened.” (quoting Diffendal v. Commonwealth, 8 Va. App. 417, 421 (1989))
• interpreting former Code § 19.2-81

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).