State v. Anderson

Tbe court charged tbe jury as follows : “One is permitted to fight in self-defense or kill in self-defense when it is necessary for him to do so in order to avoid death or great bodily harm.” This instruction was not qualified elsewhere in the charge, and constitutes one of the defendant’s assignments of error.

Manifestly, the instruction denied to the accused the right “to fight in self-defense or kill in self-defense” in the absence of an actual necessity for so doing even though he may have honestly and reasonably believed from the circumstances surrounding him at the time that the…