It is a long-established principal that we have a right to defend our homes and ourselves. This right has been extended to include a right to defend others as well.

Another principle in our law is based on the concept that a person is under no obligation to prove anything to a jury. The State has the burden to prove all the elements of the crime. The defendant can stand mute. If the state cannot prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, the jury is instructed to return a verdict of not guilty.

The way Washington applies these principles in cases where self-defense is claimed presents some special challenges. The existence of any evidence that the defendant might have been acting in self-defense puts the burden on the state to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant did not act in self-defense. Thus, the law creates a presumption of self-defense and requires the state prove a negative; that the defendant was not acting in self-defense. If this cannot be proved, the jury is instructed to find him not guilty.

Once the defendant is found not guilty, then the jury is asked whether or not he proved he was acting in self-defense, but only by the greater weight of the evidence. If the defendant proves to the satisfaction of the jury that he or she was acting in self-defense, the state has to pay his attorney fees.

Not long ago in our county, Law Enforcement responded to a 911 call regarding a fight and, as it turned out, the death of someone. The brief facts are that a family relative became intoxicated, went to another’s house, demanded to fight the man who lived there, slapped and hit his wife when she asked him to leave, and charged her husband when he came outside of the house with a machete-type knife. In the fight that ensued, the attacker was cut and bled to death before the sheriff and help arrived.

In evaluating the case, I could find no evidence that the homeowner was not acting in self-defense. His attacker was a larger younger aggressive man who was drunk and refused to leave, hit his wife and then started a fight. I declined to file charges against the man. This was a disappointment to the family of the deceased, but it is the law of self-defense in Washington. We have the right to defend ourselves from each other if necessary.