Court of Appeals of Maryland· 11/21/1984

State v. Faulkner

Citations

483 A.2d 759
301 Md. 482
1984 Md. LEXIS 389

How courts have described this case

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

discussing the opinion of the California Supreme Court in People v. Flannel, 25 Cal.3d 668, 160 Cal.Rptr. 84, 603 P.2d 1 (1979)
stating self-defense is a complete defense to either murder or manslaughter that results in the acquittal of the defendant, whereas imperfect self-defense is not a complete defense, but is instead a factor in mitigation that reduces murder to voluntary manslaughter
imperfect self-defense requires no more than defendant’s subjective belief that his actions were necessary for his safety, even though the belief was objectively unreasonable
“Logically, a defendant who commits a homicide while honestly, though unreasonably, believing that he is threatened with death or serious bodily harm, does not act with malice.”
“These acts, because they create passion in the defendant and are not the product of a free will, negate malice and thus mitigate a homicide to manslaughter.”
“[W]hen evidence is presented showing the defendant’s subjective belief that the use of force was necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily harm, the defendant is entitled to a proper instruction on imperfect self defense.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Cole

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76 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

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