Kenneth Brian Weaver v. State of Mississippi

FAIR, J., DISSENTING:

¶ 33. Kenneth Weaver gave several different accounts of what happened the afternoon he shot Sara Beard. The story he eventually settled on-the one he testified to at trial-was that Sara blinded him with pepper spray and he, believing she was armed and intended to shoot him, drew his gun and inadvertently shot her while trying to cock it. Weaver requested a jury instruction on his theory of imperfect self-defense-that he shot Sara "without malice but under a bona fide (but unfounded) belief that it was necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm." Brown v. State , 222…