Michael T. Anderson v. State of Mississippi, 185 So. 3d 966

Late-night shooting at a convenience store: Michael Anderson shot and killed Drystle Sanders and fired at others; multiple eyewitnesses (including two disinterested witnesses) testified Anderson fired and then walked away from the scene.
Anderson claimed self-defense at trial; he testified he picked up a fallen handgun during a struggle and fired, then dropped the gun and left.
Defendant was indicted for deliberate-design murder, aggravated assault, and felon-in-possession; jury convicted on all counts and the trial court sentenced Anderson to three consecutive life terms as a habitual offender.
Trial court granted the State’s requested flight instruction over defense objection and denied an imperfect self-defense instruction on the aggravated-assault count; the jury also was instructed that self-defense is not a defense to felon-in-possession.
On appeal and certiorari the sole granted issue was whether giving a flight instruction was erroneous when Anderson asserted self-defense.
The Court affirmed: it held the flight evidence was unexplained and probative of guilty knowledge (i.e., consciousness of guilt), so the trial court did not abuse its discretion in giving the instruction.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (State)	Defendant's Argument (Anderson)	Held
Whether a flight instruction was proper when defendant claims self-defense	Flight was unexplained and thus probative of guilty knowledge; jury may infer guilt from unexplained flight	Flight cannot be used against a defendant who claims self-defense because departure may be logical to avoid retaliation or harm	Flight instruction proper: evidence did not explain flight as avoiding retaliation; trial court did not abuse discretion
Whether self-defense excuses felon-in-possession charge	Self-defense is not a defense to felon-in-possession (court granted State’s instruction)	Self-defense should bear on context; defendant argued related defenses	Court upheld instruction that self-defense is not a defense to felon-in-possession (affirmed conviction)
Whether imperfect self-defense should be given on aggravated-assault count	N/A (issue resolved against defendant)	Defendant sought imperfect self-defense instruction	Trial court denied imperfect self-defense instruction; conviction affirmed
Admissibility/weight of victim intoxication evidence	N/A on certiorari	Defendant challenged exclusion of intoxication evidence	Exclusion not reversed on appeal (not dispositive to certiorari issue)

Williams v. State, 111 So.3d 620 (Miss. 2013) (distinguishes inference from presumption; juries may infer from evidence but may not presume guilt)
Drummer v. State, 167 So.3d 1180 (Miss. 2015) (reaffirms two-part unexplained-and-probative test for flight evidence)
Banks v. State, 631 So.2d 748 (Miss. 1994) (flight instruction improper where self-defense was claimed and evidence showed flight was logical to avoid retaliation)
Tran v. State, 681 So.2d 514 (Miss. 1996) (similar to Banks: flight instruction improper where evidence explained flight as avoidance of retribution)
Shumpert v. State, 935 So.2d 962 (Miss. 2006) (flight instruction proper where flight was unexplained except by consciousness of guilt)
Allen v. United States, 164 U.S. 492 (U.S. 1896) (classic statement that flight is competent evidence tending to establish guilt)