When can you use force to protect yourself against someone else? This is such an important question, especially as our newsfeeds are bombarded daily with the latest carjacking or shooting as a criminal defense attorney who's represented police officers involved in shootings and argued use of force in front of juries. I have a lot of experience with this. I'm Attorney Morgan Lay with Markham law firm here to talk to you about the laws in Maryland concerning self-defense. I often get questions about when it's appropriate to use force, but so often the questions come after someone has been charged with a crime. I hope you find this video useful. Subscribe to both my YouTube channel as well as Markham Law Firm's YouTube channel for more informative videos like this one.
Self-defense is a defense to all Maryland assaultive crimes, including murder. In order to assert self-defense, there must be some evidence that you believed that you were at risk of immediate or imminent harm. So if you're in Maryland and someone in California calls you and says, if you were here, I'd punch you in the face. That is neither immediate nor imminent. On the other hand, if someone is standing 20 feet away from you and takes a few steps closer while shouting that they're going to give you a beat down, this would probably be immediate and imminent. Let's briefly cover perfect self-defense versus imperfect self-defense. Perfect self-defense is a complete defense to assault and exists where the defendant's belief that he or she was in immediate or imminent danger of bodily harm is reasonable. Reasonable to who? Well, the judge or the jury. On the other hand, if the judge or jury finds that the defendant actually believed that he or she was in harm's way, but that the belief was not reasonable, that is known as imperfect. Self-defense. Imperfect self-defense can result in a less severe conviction such as mitigating first degree assault down to the misdemeanor of second degree assault.
It does matter who the initial aggressor was. If you are the initial aggressor, you may be precluded from asserting self-defense. It can be a fine line. A judge or jury may have the task of deciding whether someone permissibly armed themselves in anticipation of the need for self-defense versus placing themselves in a position to become a victim. By seeking out a fight where both parties agree to fight, they are both initial aggressors and neither will generally receive the benefit of asserting self-defense. Except where the offense is murder or attempted murder, then mutual combat is considered legally adequate provocation to reduce the charge to voluntary manslaughter. Even if you are the initial aggressor, you may be able to assert self-defense where the other party, where you withdraw from the encounter and make this withdrawal clear to the other party or where the other party escalates the fight to the deadly force level.
For example, if you and a fellow bar patron take it to the parking lot to fight it out and after a few blows you've had enough bat and back away while yelling, alright, that's it. You win, I'm done, and then you get a punch in the face. The other party has committed an assault. Similarly, if you and the same fellow bar patron take it outside for a fist fight and then the other person pulls out a gun, you can assert self-defense because the other party escalated the fist fight to the deadly force level. So when can you use deadly force? Deadly force is defined as that amount of force reasonably calculated to cause death or serious bodily harm. In order to use deadly force think gun knife or ramming someone with a vehicle. By way of example, you must reasonably believe that you are in immediate and imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.
The use of force, the use of deadly force imposes a duty to retreat unless you are in your home or the part of a building you're using as a residence, including a hotel room. The duty retreat only applies if you know the avenue of retreat and can retreat safely. For example, burglars armed with knives break into an office building where you happen to be working after hours. You can see the burglars, but they can't see you and you think that you can escape out of the side door before they see you. If that's the case, then you need to escape before pulling out your handgun and firing. On the other hand, if you cannot escape out of a side door without alerting the burglars to your presence, then there's probably no duty to retreat at this point. Alternatively, if you are in your home and armed mask, men break in during the night, you have no duty to retreat.
Finally, I'm going to go over the self-defense jury instruction. This is the instruction that a judge reads to the jury before they decide whether self-defense applies in a criminal case. Jury, you've heard the evidence that the defendant acted in self-defense is a complete defense and you are required to find the defendant not guilty if all of the following four factors are present. One, the defendant was not the initial aggressor are, or although the defendant was the initial aggressor, he or she did not raise the fight to the deadly force. Level two, the defendant actually believed that he or she was in immediate or imminent danger of bodily harm. Three, the defendant's belief was reasonable, and four, the defendant used no more force than was reasonably necessary to defend himself or herself in light of the threatened or actual harm. Stay tuned for more videos on defensive property, defense of others, and similar relevant legal content like this video inscribed to both my YouTube channel and Markham Law firm's YouTube channel. If there's a topic you would like me to cover, just shoot me a comment, the video. Thanks again. This is Attorney Morgan Lay. I'll see you next time.
YouTube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM4fpR_8_20&list=WL&index=8&t=9s
Credit: Morgan Leigh