The Arizona Supreme Court on Oct. 23 agreed to rule on whether a new state law on self defense applied to a murder defendant who was awaiting trial when changes favorable to defendants took effect earlier this year.
The justices without comment agreed to hear arguments in the Pima County Superior Court case from Tucson in which David Garcia is charged with first-degree murder in the 2004 shooting death of Alexis Samaniego.
Overturning the trial judge, the state Court of Appeals ruled that the new law did apply to Garcia’s case.
The law was passed by the Legislature this year and took effect immediately once Governor Napolitano signed it on April 24.
Instead of making a defendant prove he acted in self defense by the relatively low standard of proof of more likely than not, the new law requires that prosecutors prove by the stiffer standard of beyond a reasonable doubt that a self-defense claim was unfounded.
Last month, the Supreme Court refused to rule on two separate appeals related to the law.
In those two cases, from Maricopa and Coconino counties, courts had ruled that the changes made by the new law did not apply.
One of those two cases involved the since-concluded murder trial in Coconino County of Harold Arthur Fish, a retired Tolleson teacher who claimed self defense in the fatal shooting of another man during a 2004 confrontation on a hiking trail north of Payson. Fish was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Grant Kuenzli and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The other case, which the Supreme Court turned away in September, involves a man awaiting trial in Maricopa County. The case stems from a 2005 shooting in which Marcos Carrasco Mendez was charged with aggravated assault and unlawful discharge of a firearm. Another man was shot after two fist fights with Mendez.
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