How does self-defense factor into a homicide case, and what must be proven for it to hold up in?

So self-defense is an affirmative defense that you can bring up in order to try to defend yourself against homicide charges. As long as you, once you bring up the defense of self-defense and you have to notify the judge and notify the DA that you’re going to raise that self-defense. Once you bring in some evidence that there is a self-defense claim, then it’s the burden shifts to the prosecution to disprove that self-defense claim.

Now, there’s some important caveats to that. You have to have proportional use of force. So for example, if someone’s threatening to punch you, you can’t then pull out a gun and shoot them.

That wouldn’t be valid self-defense. But if you can show a proportional use of force An experienced Denver homicide defense attorney can review the evidence, explain the process, and help protect your rights.