Jarvis v. State

Summary

The Supreme Court of Maryland affirmed the judgment upholding Aaron Jarvis’s convictions, holding that the evidence did not satisfy the “some evidence” threshold for an imperfect self-defense instruction. Although Jarvis testified that he feared the victim and brandished a knife, he characterized the stabbing as accidental and identified grabbing the victim—not stabbing him—as the force he believed necessary for protection; the opposing account portrayed the stabbing as intentional but unprovoked. Because the Court found no instructional error, it did not reach harmless error.