What is Self-Defense?
Self-defense refers to resorting to physical force or the use of a weapon to protect yourself, and it’s a challenging defense strategy that requires careful legal attention. Nevertheless, protecting yourself or someone else in the face of serious harm is sometimes necessary, and defending yourself against any charge that may apply is important. If you’re facing a criminal charge that relates to you engaging in self-defense, seek the trusted legal representation of an experienced Greenville, South Carolina, criminal defense attorney.
South Carolina’s Stand Your Ground Law
South Carolina has a stand-your-ground law that incorporates various self-defense doctrines within it, and it applies whether you are in your home or not.
The Castle Doctrine
The castle doctrine in South Carolina allows that you have no duty to retreat from your attacker as long as you or the person you were defending had the right to be in the location you found yourself in when the attack occurred, including:
- Your home or dwelling
- Your car
- Your place of work
Further, if the above applies to the person you were protecting, the castle doctrine should also apply. Another situation in which the castle doctrine can be used is when someone else forcibly removes you – or attempts to forcibly remove you – from a location where you have the right to be.
Standing Your Ground
In South Carolina, you have the right to stand your ground – or defend yourself without retreating – if you reasonably believe that you or another person is in immediate danger of being killed, suffering serious bodily harm, or being sexually assaulted.
Proving the Necessary Elements
Neither the castle doctrine nor the stand-your-ground law gives anyone the right to kill or seriously harm someone first and to call it self-defense later. Instead, self-defense is an affirmative defense in which you admit to the crime in question but claim mitigating circumstances – that must be present. The burden of proving that you were acting in self-defense – in accordance with the law – is on you and is legally challenging.
All the following elements must hold in order to successfully claim self-defense:
- You did not provoke your attacker nor do anything else to bring on the attack that you were defending yourself against.
- When you defended yourself, you believed that you were at imminent risk of being killed or seriously harmed.
- Based on the unique circumstances of your case, other reasonable people would have come to the same conclusion that you did regarding the level of threat involved.
- You had no other probable means of avoiding the danger in question, which does not include the requirement to retreat.
Seek the Legal Representation of an Experienced Greenville Criminal Defense Attorney
The diligent criminal defense attorneys at Ryan Beasley Law in Greenville, South Carolina, are well acquainted with the nuanced legal complexities of self-defense cases and have an impressive track record of successfully guiding these challenging cases toward beneficial resolutions. Learn more by contacting us online or calling 864-679-7777 today.