Texas-Book-Gun Law Armed And Educated - Flipbook - Page 190
This statute serves the purpose of preventing individuals who arrange
to fight each other from avoiding criminal responsibility for their
actions by claiming self-defense. The statute here is clear: if
a person agrees to the force used against him or her by another
person, that person cannot later claim that he or she fought back
in self-defense! See Gustin v. State, 02-17-00376-CR, 2019 (Tex.
App.—Fort Worth, May 9, 2019 no pet.); see also Padilla v. State,
No. 03-07-00513-CR 2008, WL 5423139 (Tex. App.—Austin,
Dec. 31, 2008 no pet.). However, there may be situations where
a defendant who is not able to claim self-defense because of the
issue of consent may have relief because Texas Penal Code Section
22.06 provides the defense of consent to specific situations.
CONSENT AS DEFENSE TO ASSAULTIVE CONDUCT
TEX. PENAL CODE § 22.06
(a) The victim’s effective consent or the actor’s reasonable belief
that the victim consented to the actor’s conduct is a defense to
prosecution under Section 22.01 (Assault), 22.02 (Aggravated
Assault), or 22.05 (Deadly Conduct) if:
(1) the conduct did not threaten or inflict serious bodily injury; or
(2) the victim knew the conduct was a risk of:
(A) his occupation;
(B) recognized medical treatment; or
(C) a scientific experiment conducted by recognized
methods.
(b) The defense to prosecution provided by Subsection (a) is not
available to a defendant who commits an offense described by
Subsection (a) as a condition of the defendant’s or the victim’s
initiation or continued membership in a criminal street gang, as
defined by Section 71.01.
When Can I Legally Use My Gun: Part II | 179
