Self Defense
Penal Code 197 — justifiable against a felony or great bodily injury, and a presumption at home
In California, homicide is justifiable when committed by any person in the cases the code lists, among them:
- Resisting an attempt to murder any person, to commit a felony, or to do great bodily injury to any person.
- Defending a home, property or person against one who manifestly intends or tries, by violence or surprise, to commit a felony, or who tries in a violent, riotous or tumultuous manner to enter a home to offer violence to someone inside.
- Lawfully defending oneself or a family member where there is reasonable ground to fear a design to commit a felony or do great bodily injury, and imminent danger of it being carried out.
The one who started it. A person who was the assailant, or engaged in mutual combat, must really and in good faith have tried to decline any further struggle before the homicide for the defense of self or family to be justifiable.
A presumption at home. A person who uses force intended or likely to cause death or great bodily injury inside their own residence, against someone outside the family or household who unlawfully and forcibly entered, is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent death or great bodily injury, where the person knew or had reason to believe the unlawful and forcible entry occurred.
Great bodily injury means a significant or substantial physical injury. How courts apply these sections to force short of homicide is case law, and is not reproduced here. Whether force was justified is a question for a court and for a licensed California attorney.
Sources for this section (2)
- Penal Code 197 — Justifiable homicide by any person
- Penal Code 198.5 — Presumption of fear against an intruder in a residence
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed California attorney.