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22 Ohio St. 3d 281

State v. Jackson

Ohio Supreme Court

Decided March 19, 1986

Ohio Supreme Court · decided 1986-03-19

Relies on 21 Ohio St. 3d 91 - State v. Martin · Thomas v. Leeke

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1986-03-19

How this case has been cited

Cited by 307 later decisions — most recently February 2026 · most notably 79 Ohio App. 3d 667 - State v. Caldwell (1992), State v. Williford (1990)

4 federal appellate · 295 state decisions

146019861990200020102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Sweeney, J.,

¶1dissenting. Based upon the reasoning articulated in my prior dissent in State v. Martin (1986), 21 Ohio St. 3d 91, 96, I must dissent from Part I of the majority opinion herein.

¶2The placement of the burden of proof of self-defense on the accused, pursuant to R.C. 2901.05, is patently unconstitutional as a violation of the Due Process Clauses of both the state and federal Constitutions.

¶3As one court recently noted, “[rjooted in the Anglo-American tradition is the belief that a killing in self-defense is not a crime.” Thomas v. Leeke (C.A. 4, 1984), 725 F. 2d 246, at 249-250, fn. 2.

¶4I stand firm in my belief that the taking of the life of another in self-defense is a completely lawful act. Since the affirmative defense of self-defense is one which serves to negate some of the facts (i.e., voluntariness and unlawfulness) that are necessary to constitute the crime of murder, the burden of persuasion on self-defense is one which should be carried by the state,, once'the defense is raised by the accused.

¶5Thus', I would reverse the decision of the court of appeals, and remand the cause .for further proceedings on this issue.

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