State of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Appellee v. Tanya D. Harden, Defendant Below, Appellant

Summary

The court vacated Tanya Harden's first-degree murder conviction and remanded for immediate entry of a judgment of acquittal because the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she did not act in self-defense. The court held that prior abuse and threats were relevant to both the subjective and objective reasonableness of her belief in imminent danger, and that a co-occupant attacked in the home has no duty to retreat before using otherwise justified deadly force. Chief Justice Benjamin, dissenting, would have upheld the conviction because the evidence supported a finding that the decedent was incapacitated and posed no imminent threat.