Parker v. United States
Decision Date | 16 March 2017 |
Docket Number | 14-CM-1151 |
Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
Parties | Tameka PARKER, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. |
Paul J. Riley was on the brief for appellant.
Vincent H. Cohen, Jr., Acting United States Attorney at the time the brief was filed, and Elizabeth Trosman, John P. Mannarino, Sarah Vanore, and Edward G. Burley, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief for appellee.
Before Thompson and Easterly, Associate Judges, and Ferren, Senior Judge.
Tameka Parker appeals her conviction, following a bench trial, for simple assault.1 She argues that the evidence was insufficient to disprove her claim of self-defense. The trial court determined that Ms. Parker reasonably believed that she was in imminent danger of bodily harm when Frederick Powell and members of his family accosted her in front of her home and Mr. Powell threatened and then spit on her. Nonetheless, the trial court rejected Ms. Parker's claim that she was acting in self-defense when, in response to Mr. Powell spitting on her, she spit back on him. The trial court determined that Ms. Parker, although actually and reasonably afraid of Mr. Powell, had acted with a retaliatory motive that defeated her claim of self-defense.
We question whether the record evidence supports the trial court's determination that Ms. Parker's motivation was purely retributive, but ultimately conclude that the trial court erred as a matter of law in conducting a separate inquiry into Ms. Parker's motive. Under the District's long-standing common law test for self-defense, captured in our standard jury instructions, whether the government has disproved a claim of self-defense turns on two questions: (1) whether a defendant reasonably believed that she was in imminent danger of bodily harm (an inquiry that may be informed, among other things, by motive evidence presented by the government); and (2) if so, whether the force used was excessive. Motive is not separately and additionally considered as a basis for disproving a claim of self-defense. In this case, the trial court found that Ms. Parker's belief she was in imminent danger was reasonable and there was never an argument that her act of spitting on Mr. Powell constituted excessive force. As there was no basis for the trial court to reject Ms. Parker's claim of self-defense, we reverse.
Early one evening in June 2014, Ms. Parker walked out of her home where she lived with her three children. She was about to get into a friend's car, when she heard Mr. Powell3 yell from across the street that he "should go over and smack the shit out of that bitch." When Ms. Parker asked to whom he was speaking, Mr. Powell crossed the street and came onto her property, positioned himself so that he and Ms. Parker were face-to-face, and said, "bitch, you." Mr. Powell's "aggressi[ve]" approach indicated to Ms. Parker that "he was trying to fight [her]," and Mr. Powell asked her "do you want that smoke," a question Ms. Parker understood as a threat to shoot her.
Mr. Powell's mother crossed the street with him, and several of his brothers joined them on Ms. Parker's property; the family surrounded her friend's car and yelled insults at Ms. Parker. They called her a "dirty bitch" and accused her of being "hot," i.e. , "working with the police." "[T]here were a lot of them," and Ms. Parker "fear[ed] for [her] life."
When he was less than two feet away from her, Mr. Powell spit in her face. Ms. Parker was "really was scared" once Mr. Powell spit on her, because she "didn't know what he was going to do next." She spit back.4
At about that time, unbeknownst to Ms. Parker,5 a police officer arrived. While sitting in his car, the officer saw Mr. Powell face-to-face with Ms. Parker, surrounded by approximately ten people,6 all standing near a car and yelling at each other. The officer could not hear what they were saying, but he saw Ms. Parker spit on Mr. Powell. When he spoke to her at the scene, she explained (because the officer had not seen the entire encounter and in particular, had not seen Mr. Powell spit on Ms. Parker) "that she wouldn't just spit on him for no reason, that he spit on her first." The officer then arrested Ms. Parker for simple assault.
At trial, Mr. Powell did not testify and the government called only one witness, the arresting officer. Ms. Parker testified on her own behalf. Ms. Parker conceded that she spit on Mr. Powell but claimed she was acting in self-defense. On direct and cross-examination, Ms. Parker repeatedly testified that she was afraid of Mr. Powell. On direct, Ms. Parker was asked what she believed was going to happen at the time she spat back at Mr. Powell and she said, On cross-examination, she specifically denied being angry: In response to a followup question from the court—"Why is it that you spit in [Mr. Powell's] face?"—she explained, as she had to the police officer, that she had spit on Mr. Powell "[b]ecause he came on my property and ... spit on me first." Finally, on redirect, Ms. Parker once again explained why she had spit on Mr. Powell:
It was just that he spit in my face and I felt scared with the way they approached me that day. They approached me in a scary situation. I had a lot of people approach me at one time and I really did not know what I did or what I did wrong for him to say he was going to smack me and walk on to my property and then to spit in my face.
The government argued in closing that it had carried its burden to show that "the defendant was not in fear of imminent bodily harm which is the standard of self-defense." Instead the government asserted that the evidence established that Ms. Parker was "very angry," "indignant," and "offended by what she states that the complainant did to her." The government further asserted that Ms. Parker had not The government then highlighted Ms. Parker's testimony that she had spit on Mr. Powell because he spit on her. The defense countered in its closing that there was "absolutely no reason or evidence to believe that Ms. Parker wasn't afraid and, in fact, it is to the contrary." "[T]here is evidence and there is testimony that she was actually afraid ... and that she had reasonable grounds for that belief."
The trial court, after determining that Ms. Parker's spitting was an assaultive act, rejected her claim of self-defense, but not on the ground urged by the government. Preliminarily, the court "instruct[ed] [it]self" on the law of self-defense and acknowledged that "every person has the right to use a reasonable amount of force in self-defense if one, she actually believes she is in imminent danger of bodily harm and if two, she has reasonable grounds for that belief."7 The court then found, contrary to the government's argument, that Ms. Parker did reasonably believe herself to be in such danger:
I conclude based on this record that Ms. Parker reasonably believed that she was in imminent danger of bodily harm. I think it is a very rich record with respect to her belief of imminent bodily harm and the reasonableness of that belief. She testified entirely credibly with no impeachment at all that amounted to anything except a minor difference in recollection about exactly what the spacing of the complaining witness and Ms. Parker was, that she was walking out of her door to get into her friend's car and as she was doing nothing more than walking to a car, Mr. Powell who was sitting nearby on his family's porch said loudly enough for her to hear, I should go over there and smack the shit out of that bitch, and he then approached her walking across the street like he was going to fight her and he was backed up by his mother who was also saying aggressive things towards Ms. Parker. They were saying such things as, bitch, you hot, which meant that she was working with the police and, you want that smoke, which was a threat to shoot and he got right up in her face and she said, who you talking to, and he said, bitch, you, and she said, whatever, little boy, get out of my face, at which point he spit on her and a half a dozen members of his family were also approaching her and backing him up.
The court also "credit[ed] Ms. Parker's testimony that she didn't realize that Officer Bradley was there" and thus did not appreciate she could have asked him for help:
It is perfectly believable to me that with people shouting at each other, with her attention focused on what is going on and having been spit on, on having been threatened, on the mother coming across the street and yelling at her also on the back up of the relatives, that she is looking at all of that and everything else that is occurring is somewhere in the background noise and not quite registering for her. So, I don't think that it detracts from her credibility that the officer was there and she could easily have turned to the officer and said, look what he did and then he would be prosecuted before me for assault instead of her. I accept Ms. Parker's explanation that she was afraid even though she didn't get in the car. It is her judgment whether she is at more risk in a confined space than she is out in the open. She had family members to access to her as long as she was out in the open. I am not going to question that judgment and I don't think it detracts from her testimony that she actually did fear that she was in imminent danger of bodily harm that she...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Waters v. Lockett
...he acted in self-defense, the government assumes the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he did not. Parker v. United States , 155 A.3d 835, 842 (D.C. 2017). In his testimony, Waters presented some evidence indicating that he acted in defense when asking Randolph and Doe to sta......
-
Toler v. United States
...205 (D.C. 2004) (a defendant is entitled to a jury instruction on self-defense if there is "some evidence" of it); Parker v. United States , 155 A.3d 835, 842 (D.C. 2017) (when a defendant presents evidence that he acted in self-defense, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt t......
-
State v. Wall
...the right to use force in self-defense, "a defendant may use only reasonable force to repel the perceived attack." Parker v. United States , 155 A.3d 835, 845 (D.C. 2017) (quotation simplified). It is assault and not self-defense when a defendant fights back with a level of violence that is......
-
Dawkins v. United States
...or ‘provoked the conflict upon herself,’ the fact-finder need not even reach the core self-defense inquiry." Parker v. United States , 155 A.3d 835, 848 n.26 (D.C. 2017) (citing Criminal Jury Instructions for the District of Columbia, No. 9.504.A). The government did not pursue a legal theo......