{"id":161,"date":"2017-10-23T14:05:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T18:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearwatercriminallawyer.net\/?p=161"},"modified":"2024-09-06T12:35:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T16:35:46","slug":"florida-appeals-court-reverses-trial-court-refused-instruct-jury-defendants-self-defense-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-reverses-trial-court-refused-instruct-jury-defendants-self-defense-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Appeals Court Reverses Trial Court that Refused to Instruct the Jury on Defendant&#8217;s Self-Defense Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Florida criminal law proscribes illegal activities through statute. That means that after a legislative session, actions that were once permissible might become unlawful or <em>vice versa<\/em>. For those accused of crimes, the defendant will likely be subject to the law at the time that the crime occurred. In a jury trial, the court instructs the jury on the law before the jury makes their findings as to the defendant&#8217;s guilt or innocence. This month, the Second District appeals court\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.2dca.org\/opinions\/Opinion_Pages\/Opinion_Pages_2017\/October\/October%2020,%202017\/2D15-3153.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">overturned<\/a> an attempted second-degree murder conviction under the theory that the self-defense jury instructions incorrectly stated the law at the time the crime was committed.<\/p>\n<p>The defendant attended a house party when he was 17. The defendant, along with his friends, got into a confrontation with another group about missing beer, suggesting it was stolen. This first meeting did not become violent. At a second house party, later that night, where both groups were present, tensions boiled over, and a fight erupted. The defendant testified that he tried to break up the fight but was attacked and got stabbed with a pocket knife. The defendant pulled out his own knife to defend himself. He blindly swung his knife around in alleged self-defense because he was scared for his life and didn&#8217;t know how else to defend himself. Two people were allegedly stabbed by the defendant&#8217;s knife. The State charged the defendant with attempted second-degree murder.<\/p>\n<p>Florida&#8217;s self-defense jurisprudence has evolved over the years and is one of the State&#8217;s most controversial laws. The appeals court was asked to review the defendant&#8217;s conviction under the 2012 version of the law. Although Florida Statutes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leg.state.fl.us\/statutes\/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;URL=0700-0799\/0776\/Sections\/0776.013.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Section 776.013<\/a> negates a self-defense claim for someone engaging in illegal activity at the time force was used, the version of the law in effect in 2012 did not.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-reverses-trial-court-refused-instruct-jury-defendants-self-defense-claim\/#more-161\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida criminal law proscribes illegal activities through statute. That means that after a legislative session, actions that were once permissible might become unlawful or vice versa. For those accused of crimes, the defendant will likely be subject to the law at the time that the crime occurred. In a jury trial, the court instructs the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-violent-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Florida Appeals Court Reverses Trial Court that Refused to Instruct the Jury on Defendant&#039;s Self-Defense Claim &#8212; St. Petersburg Criminal Lawyer Blog &#8212; October 23, 2017<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Florida criminal law proscribes illegal activities through statute. That means that after a legislative session, actions that were once permissible might &#8212; October 23, 2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-reverses-trial-court-refused-instruct-jury-defendants-self-defense-claim\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florida Appeals Court Reverses Trial Court that Refused to Instruct the Jury on Defendant&#039;s Self-Defense Claim &#8212; St. Petersburg Criminal Lawyer Blog &#8212; October 23, 2017\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Florida criminal law proscribes illegal activities through statute. 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That means that after a legislative session, actions that were once permissible might &#8212; October 23, 2017","og_url":"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-reverses-trial-court-refused-instruct-jury-defendants-self-defense-claim\/","og_site_name":"St. Petersburg Criminal Lawyer Blog","article_published_time":"2017-10-23T18:05:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-06T16:35:46+00:00","author":"Hanlon Law, PA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-reverses-trial-court-refused-instruct-jury-defendants-self-defense-claim\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-reverses-trial-court-refused-instruct-jury-defendants-self-defense-claim\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e62d4e140f78dfe2fb0dd2758275b312"},"headline":"Florida Appeals Court Reverses Trial Court that Refused to Instruct the Jury on Defendant&#8217;s Self-Defense Claim","datePublished":"2017-10-23T18:05:25+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-06T16:35:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-reverses-trial-court-refused-instruct-jury-defendants-self-defense-claim\/"},"wordCount":581,"articleSection":["Violent Crimes"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-reverses-trial-court-refused-instruct-jury-defendants-self-defense-claim\/","url":"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-reverses-trial-court-refused-instruct-jury-defendants-self-defense-claim\/","name":"Florida Appeals Court Reverses Trial Court that Refused to Instruct the Jury on Defendant's Self-Defense Claim &#8212; St. Petersburg Criminal Lawyer Blog &#8212; October 23, 2017","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-10-23T18:05:25+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-06T16:35:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stpetersburgcriminalattorney.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e62d4e140f78dfe2fb0dd2758275b312"},"description":"Florida criminal law proscribes illegal activities through statute. 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