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Originally Posted by ltc444
AZ's law, as I understand it, provides self defense as a presumptive defense. The prosecutors have to prove that it was not self defense....
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No. That is not how it works.
Here,
here and
here is a discussion of Arizona law.
The bottom line is that if you are claiming self defense, you still
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...have the burden of putting on evidence that that you satisfied every element necessary under the legal standard for your conduct to have been justified. You still have the burden of putting on a prima facie case of self defense, i. e., sufficient evidence from which the trier of fact can infer that you satisfied the legal standard for self defense....
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Originally Posted by 2damnold4this
A person who claims self defense is presumed to have feared for his life and it's up to the prosecution to show that a reasonable person would not have been in fear of his life. ...
Am I missing anything?
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I'm afraid that you are missing a very important, key thing.
You don't get a presumption just by saying you were acting in self defense. That is insufficient. You can't just say, "I was defending myself" and thus shift the burden to the prosecution to prove that you weren't. You must still put forth evidence establishing
prima facie that all the elements required for justification were satisfied.