Ill. Pattern Jury Instr. (Criminal) 7.06

Belief In Justification

To sustain either the charge of first degree murder or the charge of second degree murder,

the State must prove the following propositions:

First Proposition: That the defendant performed the acts which caused the death of ____;

and

Second Proposition: That when the defendant did so,

[1] he intended to kill or do great bodily harm to ____;

[or]

[2] he knew that such acts would cause death to ____;

[or]

[3] he knew that such acts created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to

____;

and

Third Proposition: That the defendant was not justified in using the force which he used.

If you find from your consideration of all the evidence that any one of these propositions

has not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt, your deliberations [on these charges] should

end, and you should return a verdict of not guilty [of first degree murder].

If you find from your consideration of all the evidence that each one of these propositions

has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt, then you should go on with your deliberations to

decide whether a mitigating factor has been proved so that the defendant is guilty of the lesser

offense of second degree murder instead of first degree murder.

You may not consider whether the defendant is guilty of the lesser offense of second

degree murder until and unless you have first determined that the State has proved beyond a

reasonable doubt each of the previously stated propositions.

The defendant has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that a

mitigating factor is present so that he is guilty of the lesser offense of second degree murder

instead of first degree murder. By this I mean that you must be persuaded, considering all the

evidence in this case, that it is more probably true than not true that the following mitigating

factor is present: that the defendant, at the time he performed the acts which caused the death of

____, believed the circumstances to be such that they justified the deadly force he used, but his

belief that such circumstances existed was unreasonable.

If you find from your consideration of all the evidence that the defendant has proved by a

preponderance of the evidence that a mitigating factor is present so that he is guilty of the lesser

offense of second degree murder instead of first degree murder, you should find the defendant

guilty of second degree murder.

If you find from your consideration of all the evidence that the defendant has not proved

by a preponderance of the evidence that a mitigating factor is present so that he is guilty of the

lesser offense of second degree murder instead of first degree murder, you should find the

defendant guilty of first degree murder.