in self-defense

The defense team argued that the boys were acting in self-defense, following years of sexual abuse by their father Jose Menendez.

A judge granted the restraining order, and a month later, Jackson filed his own request, alleging that Palmer had been violent toward him and that many of the acts of which he had been accused were in self-defense.

At trial, April testified that she was acting in self-defense, but she was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.

The assistant district attorney was quoted in the paper saying that April “didn’t act in self-defense,” and that she “wasn’t in a relationship where she was a battered woman. She was in a relationship where there was violence perpetuated by both offenders, and she was the worst offender.”

Many of the almost 50 eyewitnesses would later say that the shooter, Penn, had acted in self-defense after being beaten by the officers with batons.