HF 5059 Summary

• Amends Minnesota Statutes section 609.065 to establish a four-element test for justifiable use of deadly force: absence of aggression or provocation, defendant's actual and honest belief in imminent danger of death or great bodily injury, reasonable grounds for that belief, and absence of reasonable possibility of retreat unless in one's own home.

• Shifts burden to the defense to present evidence of sufficient threat elements in criminal cases involving death or attempted killing, which the state may then disprove beyond a reasonable doubt.

• Allows introduction of prior physical abuse history in criminal cases where the defendant was the abuse recipient and the victim was the abuser, permitting the fact-finder to consider this history when evaluating imminent danger and whether the defendant displayed aggression or provocation.