State v. Irons

A self-defense instruction that requires the jury to find that the defendant reasonably believed that the victim (rather than the victim and those whom the defendant reasonably believed were acting in concert with the victim) intended to inflict death or great personal injury precludes the jury from considering the defendant’s right to act upon reasonable appearances in a multiple assailant attack, thereby failing to make the relevant legal standard manifestly apparent to the average juror. The trial court in this case erred by giving such an instruction and the error was not harmless.…