Indiana Defendants Get "Benefit of Hindsight When It Reveals Their Conduct Was Necessary in Self-Defense," ...

Antonio Turner shot Dequan Briscoe in self-defense after hearing a threat from a classmate's jealous love interest.

Turner fired four shots into a car after hearing the threat from the jealous lover's jealous boyfriend.

A judge convicted Turner of battery by means of a deadly weapon, a Level 5 felony.

But the judge rejected Turner 's self-defence justification because it was objectively unreasonable for Turner to fire at a car into which he couldn't see.

Indiana 's self-defense statute establishes "both an objective and subjective standard" to evaluate the reasonableness of a defendant's belief that force was necessary to protect against the imminent use of unlawful force.

Turner knew that Briscoe owned a gun; he overheard Briscoes make angry, profanity-laced remarks to his study partner over the phone.

Turner testified that, given the circumstances, he believed it "had to be" Briscoo "pulling up," that there was "[no] way it wasn't".