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MLeake · July 10, 2013, 02:27 PM

To clarify, as I understand it from self defense classes and study, here is an example:

I have studied martial arts for a couple decades, and am actually pretty skilled.

Some knucklehead and I get in a fight, and he shoots me. His defense is that I was such a dangerous opponent, he was automatically in fear of great bodily harm. However, he only knows about my training after the event, from research done by the police and/or his defense team.

At the time of the event, I was dressed normally, and just looked like a history teacher or similar, in reasonably good shape. (40s, 6ft, 195, nothing spectacular nor terrifying.)

He CAN'T use my level of training to establish his reasonable fear, because at the time of the event he didn't know about it.

Now, he could possibly work around this, if for example he were an MMA fan, and recognized some move, throw, lock, or hold I put on him, and realized it were actually done well. He would have to establish that he could, in fact, recognize that technique, and my relative proficiency at it, and then he could very well introduce my background.

Or, if I had a habit of beating up knuckleheads, his defense team might establish that the actions he described me as taking matched a pattern of past actual, documented behavior.

July 10, 2013, 02:27 PM	#215
MLeake Senior Member Join Date: November 15, 2007 Location: Outside KC, MO Posts: 10,128	To clarify, as I understand it from self defense classes and study, here is an example: I have studied martial arts for a couple decades, and am actually pretty skilled. Some knucklehead and I get in a fight, and he shoots me. His defense is that I was such a dangerous opponent, he was automatically in fear of great bodily harm. However, he only knows about my training after the event, from research done by the police and/or his defense team. At the time of the event, I was dressed normally, and just looked like a history teacher or similar, in reasonably good shape. (40s, 6ft, 195, nothing spectacular nor terrifying.) He CAN'T use my level of training to establish his reasonable fear, because at the time of the event he didn't know about it. Now, he could possibly work around this, if for example he were an MMA fan, and recognized some move, throw, lock, or hold I put on him, and realized it were actually done well. He would have to establish that he could, in fact, recognize that technique, and my relative proficiency at it, and then he could very well introduce my background. Or, if I had a habit of beating up knuckleheads, his defense team might establish that the actions he described me as taking matched a pattern of past actual, documented behavior.