Watkins v. State

555 A.2d 1087 (1989)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D and the homicide victim, Kenneth Gardner, engaged in a fight at the home of a third person. In the course of that fight, D stabbed the victim several times, causing the victim's death. Many witnesses testified that D was the initial aggressor at a nondeadly level. D claimed he was not the initial aggressor even at that level. The fight commenced at the nondeadly level and the jury was correctly instructed as to the availability of the defense of self-defense under those circumstances. The jury was instructed that if D had been initially attacked, he would ordinarily be entitled to respond, with appropriate force, in self-defense. They were also told that if D were the aggressor he would not be entitled to claim self-defense. D claimed he was entitled to an instruction that even if he were the initial aggressor at the nondeadly level if the victim escalated the fight to a deadly level, D was entitled to a self-defense instruction. The court refused that instruction. D was convicted and appealed.