State v. . Roddey

The court below, speaking to the subject of the right of a man to fight in self-defense, among other things, charged as follows : “Now, if an assault is made on him and is not a felonious assault, then before he can slay his assailant and do so in self-defense, the law requires that he retreat, get away if he can do so without subjecting himself to great bodily harm or death. ... In such cases a person is required to withdraw, if he can do so, and retreat as far as is consistent with his own safety. In either case, he can only kill from necessity, but in the one he can have that necessity…