State v. Burns

Defendant was convicted of murder, ORS 163.115, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He assigns as error the failure of the trial court to submit upon timely request the issue of self-defense to the jury. Defendant is entitled to such an instruction if there is evidence from which the jury could infer that defendant’s conduct was legally justified under the existing law of -self-defense. State v. Anderson, 207 Or 675, 695, 298 P2d 195 (1956); State v. Nodine, 198 Or 679, 717, 259 P2d 1056 (1953).

The testimony given by the only two living eyewitnesses to the killing, defendant and his wife, was…