Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
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State v. Harvey, 372 N.C. 304 (Jun. 14, 2019)
In a 5-to-1 decision, the Court affirmed the decision of a divided panel of the Court of Appeals, ___ N.C. App. ___, 817 S.E.2d 500 (2018) (unpublished), finding that the trial court did not err in refusing to instruct the jury on self-defense or imperfect self-defense in the stabbing death of the victim. Relying on previous decisions, the majority found that the defendant was not entitled to self-defense instructions because he referred to the stabbing as “the accident,” stated that his purpose in getting a knife was because he was “scared” that the victim was going to try to hurt him, and that what he sought to do with the knife was to make the victim leave. The majority found that the defendant’s testimony did not establish that he feared death or great bodily harm as a result of the victim’s actions or that he inflicted the fatal blow to protect himself from such harm. Because the defendant failed to present evidence that he formed a reasonable belief that it was necessary for him to fatally stab the victim in order to protect himself from death or great bodily harm, he was not entitled to an instruction on perfect or imperfect self-defense. The dissent criticized the majority for usurping the jury’s role in determining whether the killing was justified; imposing a “magic words” requirement for the defendant’s testimony; disregarding evidence favorable to the defendant and crediting contradictory evidence; and failing to take into account that the defendant was inarticulate. The opinions do not discuss the statutes on self-defense in North Carolina. [John Rubin blogged about this decision here.]