MS · jury_instructions
Proposed Mississippi Plain Language Model Jury Instructions - Criminal 510
Self-Defense - Imperfect Self-Defense
If the defendant killed another person with an actual, genuine belief that the killing was
necessary in order to protect [himself/herself] from great bodily harm or death, even though that
belief was not reasonable under the circumstances, then the defendant did not have the mental
requirement to commit murder. However, the killing may be manslaughter.
If you find from the evidence in this case that:
1. On or about [date of alleged crime] in ____________ County;
2. [Name of defendant] ________________________ [describe defendant’s alleged actions]
[name of victim] acting with an actual, genuine belief that the killing was necessary in order to
protect [himself/herself] from great bodily harm or death; but
3. That belief was not reasonable under the circumstances,
then you may find [name of defendant] guilty of the lesser-included offense of ______________
[specify lesser included offense].
History
Proposed Mississippi Plain Language Model Jury Instructions - Criminal 510 (current as of June 30, 2012). Submitted in 2012 by the Mississippi Model Jury Instructions Commission (created by the Supreme Court of Mississippi by order of December 30, 2008) and published by the Court on courts.ms.gov. The Court states that these model jury instructions have not been adopted or approved by the Supreme Court of Mississippi.
Provenance
- Source
- courts.ms.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-25
- Edition
- 2026-09-25
- Content hash
9721f323dec55ee98aab582749dc69801e36235beb4f4ff23d76fe26be8d5678
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