State v. Bruner
Annotate this Case
The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the circuit court convicting Defendant of first-degree murder and armed criminal action, holding that the circuit court did not err by refusing to submit a self-defense instruction.
In State v. Smith, 456 S.W.3d 849, 852 (Mo. 2015), the Supreme Court reaffirmed that if substantial evidence is presented of the elements of self-defense, the issue is injected and self defense must be submitted by instructing the jury that the State has the burden of proving a lack of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. In the instant case, the Supreme Court held that the circuit court did not err in refusing the self-defense instruction because Defendant did not meet his burden of producing evidence sufficient to inject self-defense in his case.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.