South Carolina Law on the Use of Deadly Force

Welcome

In this post, I would like to quote South Carolina Law as it pertains to the use of deadly force. This comes from "State v. Fuller", 297 S.C. 440, 377 S.E.2d 328 (1989) , and sets forth the elements of self-defense in South Carolina. These are:

1. You must be without fault in bringing on the difficulty;

2. You must actually believe you are in imminent danger of loss of life or serious bodily injury or actually be in such danger;

3. If you believe you are in such danger, you must use deadly force only if a reasonable or prudent man of ordinary firmness and courage would have believed himself to be in such danger, or, if you actually were in such danger, the circumstances were such as would warrant a man of ordinary prudence, firmness and courage to strike the fatal blow in order to save yourself from serious bodily harm or losing your own life;

4. You had no other probable means of avoiding the danger of losing your own life or sustaining serious bodily injury than to act as you did in the particular instance.

Thanks for stopping by. Please come again soon for more information.