CRIMINAL LAW--SELF-DEFENSE--PROPER STANDARD--EVIDENCE. In resolving an interdistrict conflict, the Court disapproved of a ruling which held that expert testimony about a defendant's post-traumatic stress disorder was categorically irrelevant to a defendant's claim of self-defense. Florida's self-defense standard is not solely governed by the objective reasonable person standard. Under section 776.012(2), Florida Statutes, self-defense involves both "an objective component, to which the reasonable person standard applies, and a subjective component, which leaves room for the admission of other relevant evidence establishing the overall circumstances." State-of-mind evidence, such as PTSD evidence, may tend to show that a defendant actually believed he was in imminent danger.
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