Lead Opinion
This appeal by the Commonwealth, the prevailing party at trial which was aggrieved by the Superior Court’s grant of a new trial, centers on principles of self-defense for purposes of assessing whether the trial court abused its discretion in excluding evidence of the murder victim’s nine-year-old conviction for robbery. The Commonwealth contends, among other points, that the Superior Court’s assessment of the evidentiary ruling misapprehended the law governing self-defense. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the Superior Court and reinstate the judgment of sentence for first-degree murder, aggravated assault and related offenses.
I.
By way of background, a claim of self-defense (or justification, to use the term employed in the Crimes Code) requires evidence establishing three elements: “(a) [that the defendant] reasonably believed that he was in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury and that it was necessary to use deadly force against the victim to prevent such harm; (b) that the defendant was free from fault in provoking the difficulty which culminated in the slaying; and (c) that the [defendant] did not violate any duty to retreat.” Commonwealth v. Samuel,
Assignment of a burden upon the Commonwealth to disprove self-defense is a relatively recent, and significant, adjustment of law. Traditionally, the defendant had the burden to prove affirmative defenses, including self-defense, by a preponderance of the evidence. The practice derived from the common law.
Soon after adoption of the Crimes Code, however, and in response to contemporaneous decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court establishing federal constitutional restrictions upon requiring a criminal " defendant to prove certain affirmative defenses, this Court re-examined and discarded the historical view that the burden of proving affirmative defenses was on the defendant. Thus, in Commonwealth v. Rose,
This Court’s first opportunity to specifically examine self-defense and Section 505 arose the next year, in Commonwealth v. Cropper,
As an apparent independent ground for its conclusion that defendants no longer should bear the burden to prove self-defense, the Cropper Court stated that, “in light of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Mullaney v. Wilbur, [
Subsequent decisions from the High Court, however, reveal that the federal constitutional predictions respecting affirmative defenses in Pennsylvania did not materialize, including the affirmative defense of self-defense. After Rose and Cropper were decided, Mullaney was significantly narrowed by Patterson v. New York,
The above background provides context for our consideration. Appellee elected not to testify at trial in order to explain what he believed the situation to be when he deployed deadly force. Instead, the claim of self-defense — a defense focusing in large part on what the defendant reasonably believes — arose from the Commonwealth’s evidence as construed by appellee for purposes of jury argument. Part of the difficulty faced by the courts below, discussed infra, no. doubt arose from the indirectness of the assertion of self-defense. But, appeal was not allowed in this case to reconsider or adjust the rule arising from Cropper; we decide the appeal in conformity with existing law concerning self-defense, which provides that, where self-defense is properly joined, the Commonwealth has the burden to disprove that defense beyond a reasonable doubt.
II.
As noted, the self-defense argument here was premised upon the Commonwealth’s evidence, and in particular the undisputed fact that the victim punched appellee multiple times before appellee pulled his gun and shot the victim in the head. The full factual and procedural báckground is as follows: on September 28, 2006, appellee arrived at the Flamingo Bar in Philadelphia sometime prior to 9:00 p.m. and proceeded to a second-floor bar where he drank for several hours. At 9:00 p.m. each evening, employees of the bar would begin screening for weapons as individuals entered the premises. Because ap-pellee arrived prior to that time, he was not screened for weapons.
Shortly after midnight, appellee approached two women, who had just arrived with a group of friends, and attempted to speak to them. When the women rebuked him, appellee pursued them throughout the bar, calling them rude names, yelling that they “didn’t look good,” they “weren’t sh — ,” and threatening that he would “kill those bitches.” In response to this harassment, the women and their companions decided to leave. Appellee persisted and followed the women down the stairs to the first -floor and then to the bar’s main exit. A friend of the group, Dewhitt Smith, who witnessed appellee’s treatment of the women, suggested that they walk in front of him out of the bar. At the exit, a heated exchange occurred between Smith and ap-pellee, during which appellee reached for something in his waistband or behind his back! The bar’s security guards attempted to defuse the situation by pulling Smith outside. Immediately thereafter, Andre King, a friend of Smith’s, approached ap-pellee, and a fight ensued.
There was conflicting testimony as to exactly how this altercation began, but the testimony was consistent that King, a rather large man, punched appellee several times. There was also testimony that, as
Appellee was charged with the murder of King, the assault of Redding, and related weapons offenses. He proceeded to a jury trial before the Honorable Teresa Sarmina. At a sidebar before commencement of the second day of testimony, before the Commonwealth had completed presenting its ease-in-chief, appellee requested an instruction on self-defense and voluntary manslaughter/ imperfect self-defense.
At the close of the Commonwealth’s evidence, appellee sought to introduce King’s prior criminal record, citing the second half of the rule in Commonwealth v. Amos, and arguing that King’s conviction for robbery and other offenses was admissible to prove that “the victim was, in fact, the aggressor” in support of the defense theory of self-defense. The prosecutor responded that, on the evidence presented to that point, no self-defense claim was appropriate. The trial court stated that it would rule upon the admissibility issue after hearing the defense evidence. N.T. 4/22/09, pp. 81-83.
Thereafter, the defense presented its case; appellee did not testify himself. At the conclusion of testimony, the trial court held a sidebar conference. Appellee’s counsel renewed his focus upon the fact that the victim had punched appellee numerous times whereupon, he said, appellee “instantly came up with a gun.” Respecting both the self-defense charge and the
Notwithstanding its rulings on self-defense and involuntary manslaughter, the trial court permitted appellee’s counsel to argue in his closing the facts that counsel believed might support a claim that King was the aggressor. Counsel then argued that King started the altercation and punched appellee several times, prompting appellee to fire his gun in responsive defense. In his summation, the prosecutor responded, in essence, that appellee’s self-defense claim was meritless, in the process telling the jury that no instruction on self-defense would be given. Id. at 136. A defense objection to this line of argument was sustained.
At sidebar, the trial court admonished the prosecutor for what the court believed was an improper comment and stated that it was now considering a self-defense instruction, implying that such a charge might be necessary to counterbalance any prejudice arising from the prosecutor’s comment. After the prosecutor completed his summation, the trial court directed him to produce case law the following morning supporting his position that appellee was not entitled to a jury charge on self-defense. Id. at 178-180. The following day, the court proceeded to charge the jury, including in its charge an instruction on self-defense. There was no record sidebar prior to the charge but, after the jury retired for deliberations, the court explained on the record that it decided that the facts were close on the issue of whether there was evidence to support self-defense and, after reviewing the decisional law, it had determined that the credibility and weight of the self-defense evidence was for the jury to assess. N.T. 4/23/09, pp. 38-41.
The jury convicted appellee of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, carrying a firearm without a license, and possessing an instrument of crime. Appellee was sentenced to a mandatory term of life imprisonment for murder and an aggregate
III.
On direct appeal, in addition to other claims not relevant here, appellee argued that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions for murder and aggravated assault because the Commonwealth failed to disprove that appellee acted in self-defense, and that the trial court erred in excluding evidence of the victim’s prior criminal record. The Superior Court, in a memorandum opinion, rejected the sufficiency challenge, concluding that while there was some evidence that King attacked appellee and that appellee acted in self-defense, there was also evidence from which the jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that the Commonwealth had disproved self-defense. First, the panel noted that the jury reasonably could have found that appellee drew his gun before King punched him, and as the provocateur, appellee was not entitled to claim self-defense at all. Also, the panel noted that even if the jury concluded that King was the aggressor, and that appellee initially pulled the gun to protect himself, once King raised his arms and backed away, the jury could have concluded that appellee could not reasonably have believed it was necessary to shoot King, and/or he could have retreated safely without the use of deadly force. See 18 Pa.C.S. § 505(b)(2)(i), (ii).
The panel agreed, however, with appel-lee that the trial court erred in excluding evidence of the victim’s prior criminal record. The panel noted that, under the Rules of Evidence, a victim’s character or propensity for violence could be proven by specific instances of his conduct. Super. Ct. Op. at 16 (citing Pa.R.E. 404(a)(2)(i), 405(b)(2)). Turning specifically to self-defense claims, the panel cited the Beck i'Amos rule that the victim’s criminal record could be admissible either to corroborate the defendant’s knowledge of the victim’s violent character, to prove that the defendant was in reasonable fear of danger; or, as character/propensity evidence, to prove that the victim was in fact the aggressor. Noting that only the second of these grounds for admission was at issue, the panel reasoned that: the trial court’s decision to exclude King’s prior robbery conviction was premised upon its initial determination that there was insufficient evidence of self-defense to charge the jury on the theory; in the panel’s view, there was “at least some evidence that King attacked [appellee] and that [appellee’s] actions were arguably designed to defend himself;” therefore, “the trial court erred in excluding King’s [criminal] record on the basis of a lack of self-defense evidence;” and, finally, that the error in excluding evidence of the prior conviction was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 16-18. The panel’s extremely brief analysis focused solely upon its belief that the prior conviction was relevant to the question of who was the aggressor; the panel did not discuss the other elements of self-defense. The court then vacated the judgment of sentence and remanded for a new murder trial at which King’s conviction could be admitted as support that he was the aggressor.
The Superior Court subsequently denied the Commonwealth’s application for rear-gument. This Court granted the Commonwealth’s petition for allowance of appeal, limited to the issue of whether the grant of a new trial contradicts precedent of this Court holding that: a) one who instigates or continues the underlying difficulty may not later claim self-defense; b) deadly force may not be used against an unarmed victim who is backing away, and thus no longer possesses a threat; and c)
IV.
The Commonwealth contends that the trial court’s decision to exclude evidence of King’s nine-year-old robbery conviction was a proper exercise of discretion, and that the Superior Court’s award of a new trial was in error. The Commonwealth notes that, while the victim’s prior record may support other evidence of self-defense, it is not admissible as a substitute for evidence of self-defense. In the Commonwealth’s view, the evidence here was insufficient to support a claim of self-defense and the Superior Court’s decision to the contrary contradicts this Court’s precedent in three respects. First, the decision contradicts cases like Commonwealth v. Bracey,
Next, the Commonwealth argues that the Superior Court’s decision contradicts precedent from this Court holding that a defendant may not validly claim self-defense where, as here, he kills an unarmed victim who is backing away and no longer poses a threat of death or serious bodily injury. The Commonwealth notes the un-contradicted fact that, once appellee drew his illegally possessed handgun, the unarmed King backed away with his hands in the air. Thus, the Commonwealth notes, appellee had successfully “protected” himself from the danger (of his own creation) he faced just by drawing his gun. However, rather than simply leave the bar, appel-lee shot twice, injuring a bystander and
Finally, the Commonwealth argues that the Superior Court’s grant of a new trial was erroneous because, even if it is assumed that self-defense was properly at issue, the victim’s nine-year-old prior conviction was not automatically admissible. Instead, the Commonwealth notes, settled law from this Court and the Superior Court recognize that a victim’s prior conviction is subject to discretionary evaluation by the trial judge to consider, inter alia, whether it was so remote in time as not to warrant admission.
In response, appellee concedes that a victim’s prior record is not admissible as a substitute for proof of self-defense, but he argues that there was a sufficient basis in the Commonwealth’s own evidence for the question of self-defense to go to the jury. Appellee asserts that the Commonwealth is “wrong” to claim that he “instigated and continued the difficulty” that led to the shooting of King and Redding. He argues that while he may have “cursed these women and threatened them,” his conduct did not suggest an intent to cause them harm. Citing Commonwealth v. Drum,
In the alternative, appellee argues that even if he provoked the incident, that fact does not prevent him from later acting in self-defense. In support of this position, appellee cites this Court’s decision in Samuel,
Turning to the Commonwealth’s second argument, respecting appellee’s reasonable belief, appellee argues that the Commonwealth again is “wrong” to claim that he was not entitled to claim self-defense merely because he shot King as King was backing away with his hands raised. In appellee’s view, the confrontation was not over just because King was backing away with his hands raised; rather, appellee was “privileged to act since the victim, even though unarmed, assaulted him.” Brief of Appellee, at 26. In support of his argument, appellee cites Commonwealth v. Fisher,
Finally, on the Commonwealth’s third question focusing on the Superior Court’s failure to recognize the trial court’s discretionary power concerning admission of the victim’s prior conviction, appellee again says the Commonwealth is “wrong.” Ap-pellee argues that it is not clear whether the conviction was remote at all, since that determination depends upon when the victim was released from prison, and indeed, it was not clear whether he was on probation or parole at the time of the incident. Appellee also argues that the cases cited by the Commonwealth concerning remoteness are distinguishable.
The Commonwealth’s Reply Brief notes that, with respect to its first argument (that appellee was not free from fault), the Drum case appellee cites is inapposite because appellee did not merely insult the women in the bar, but pursued and threatened to kill them. Reply Brief, at 2-3 (citing unrebutted testimony of Tamika Lawson that, prior to any physical altercation, appellant said: “Y’all bitches ain’t leaving here; this is the last place y’all go; this is my family’s spot; I can stop y’all from coming in and out of here.... I will kill you bitches.”). The Commonwealth also distinguishes the Samuel case appel-lee cites, arguing that the only reason the defendant in that ease had been found not to have forfeited the right to claim self-defense was that he, unlike appellee, had not threatened the victim prior to the fatal encounter. The Commonwealth also distinguishes Commonwealth v. Edwards,
Y.
Questions concerning the admissibility of evidence are committed to the discretion of the trial court, and those rulings will not be disturbed on appeal absent an abuse of discretion. Commonwealth v. Delbridge,
The evidentiary issue became more complicated when the trial court determined that, even though it would not instruct the jury on self-defense, appellee’s counsel could still argue that the victim was the aggressor. There is no record explanation for this seemingly inconsistent ruling. After counsel forwarded the argument permitted by the court in his summation, the prosecutor argued to the jury that the court would not charge on self-defense — a point that would seem to have been accurate, given the existing ruling by the court — whereupon the court reexamined the evidence and governing law and ultimately instructed the jury on self-defense. At that point, the calculus concerning admissibility of the victim’s prior conviction was altered. Notably, however, the evidence had closed, and despite being faced with this new reality, appellee did not seek to reopen the case and renew his request concerning admission of the prior conviction. Thus, the trial court never engaged in the discretionary analysis of whether to admit a prior conviction that, the Commonwealth now argues, was remote in time.
There is some force in the Commonwealth’s point that the Superior Court
The elements necessary to support a self-defense claim are significant and serve a purpose. The defense “justifies” what would otherwise be criminal conduct; if accepted by the fact finder, the result is an acquittal. In arguing self-defense, appellee would have his physical fight with King viewed in isolation, with King initiating the difficulty as the sole physical aggressor, and appellee acting in responsive self-defense. But, this is an incomplete and inaccurate view of the circumstances for self-defense purposes. The altercation between appellee and King did not occur spontaneously, or in isolation; it was the culmination of an ongoing confrontation in the bar initiated by appellee alone and continued and escalated by appellee alone. As a matter of law, we conclude that appellee was not free from fault in provoking or continuing “the difficulty” that led to the slaying, so as to warrant his use of deadly force, such that he cannot be held responsible for shooting two people, one fatally.
Appellee is correct that there is deci-sional law suggesting that merely insulting or scandalous words of a light or trivial kind do not suffice to establish the requisite provocation to negate a claim of self-defense. See Drum,
There is a similar lack of evidence to support appellee’s position, necessary to self-defense, that he entertained a reason
In the absence of specific evidence concerning appellee’s subjective beliefs, he appears to proceed under the assumption that anyone in his circumstance would feel the necessity to employ deadly force in self-defense. Even assuming that this approach is adequate as a theoretical matter to raise an issue of self-defense, the objective circumstances revealed by the actual evidence fatally undermine appellee’s position. The evidence was undisputed that appellee carried a concealed, loaded handgun throughout the incident, and at the moment appellee employed deadly force by drawing that weapon and firing twice at King, King was backing away with his hands raised. Absent testimony or some other specific account of what appellee actually believed, the evidence was not sufficient to raise a jury question whether ap-pellee subjectively believed that he had to use deadly force when he twice pulled the trigger.
For the same reasons, there is merit in the Commonwealth’s argument that the
The Superior Court panel did not discuss these elements of self-defense, focusing instead only on the possible relevance of the victim’s prior criminal conviction to prove that King, and not appellee, was the aggressor. This focus was both inappropriately narrow and problematic in its own right. It was problematic in its own right because, in examining the question of aggressor, the panel focused on a moment frozen in time, essentially ignoring appel-lee’s conduct prior to King’s intervention. As the cases reflect, these situations routinely involve developing factual patterns that must be considered in their totality. See Commonwealth v. Smith,
Moreover, the victim’s prior conviction was not relevant to the questions of whether appellee was free from fault or continued the difficulty, reasonably believed that he was in fear of imminent bodily harm from King, whom he did not know, cf. Amos, or violated a duty to retreat when he shot the victim. Rather, that conviction was relevant only as propensity evidence to show that the victim was the aggressor. The specific dispute between appellee and King comprised only a small, concluding part of the entire incident and the jury heard undisputed evidence from eyewitnesses that the victim punched appellee first and multiple times. The fact that King had a prior conviction did not negate appellee’s actions in instigating and continuing the difficulty before King entered the picture; nor was it probative of appel-lee’s alleged belief that he had to employ deadly force to defend himself, or whether appellee instead violated a duty to retreat, when he shot King. Exclusion of evidence in support of a point that was not a subject of dispute is not a proper basis for overturning a murder conviction. Thus, the panel’s conclusion that exclusion of evidence of King’s prior conviction was harmful error cannot be sustained on this record.
For the foregoing reasons, we find that the Superior Court erred in concluding that (1) there was adequate evidence of self-defense presented at trial to render the victim’s prior record potentially admis
Jurisdiction relinquished.
Notes
. Reinstatement of the judgment of sentence is appropriate because all other issues appel-lee raised in the Superior- Court were addressed and rejected.
. Section 505 provides, in relevant part:
§ 505. Use of force in self-protection
(a) Use of force justifiable for protection of the person.-The use of force upon or toward another person is justifiable when the actor believes that such force is immediately necessary for the purpose of protecting himself against the use of unlawful force by such other person on the present occasion.
(b) Limitations on justifying necessity for use of force.-
(2) The use of deadly force is not justifiable under this section unless the actor believes that such force is necessary to protect himself against death, serious bodily injury, kidnapping or sexual intercourse compelled by force or threat; nor is it justifiable if:
(i) the actor, with the intent of causing death or serious bodily injury, provoked the use of force against himself in the same encounter; or
(ii) the actor knows that he can avoid the necessity of using such force with complete safety by retreating or by surrendering possession of a thing to a person asserting a claim of right thereto or by complying with a demand that he abstain from any action which he has no duty to take....
. In a footnote of its brief, the Commonwealth questions the propriety of the rule in Amos. Brief for Appellant, 10-11 n. 2. Appeal was neither requested nor accepted to consider that question.
. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Daniels,
. A person is guilty of unreasonable belief voluntary manslaughter, more colloquially referred to as “imperfect self-defense,” if he knowingly and intentionally kills someone under the unreasonable belief that the killing was justified. See 18 Pa.C.S. § 2503(b). The affirmative defense of self-defense, if accepted, results in an acquittal because it constitutes a justification for the conduct charged. Commonwealth v. Rivera,
. In its later Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a) opinion, the court stated, however, that it issued the instruction on self-defense "solely” to eliminate any potential bias which could have arisen from the prosecutor’s closing argument, which the court deemed inappropriate. (The question of whether the remarks were appropriate given the court's prior ruling is not before this Court.) Noting these inconsistent accounts from the trial judge concerning the reason for charging on self-defense, the Superior Court concluded that the court issued the instruction both as a cure and because the factual record rendered the instruction appropriate.
. See Commonwealth v. Correa,
. Notably, the Commonwealth does not claim that appellee waived his evidentiary issue by failing to renew his objection after the court revisited its ruling on self-defense.
. We recognize that many of the cases discussed by the parties are inapposite in that the question here is whether self-defense was even an issue for the jury, whereas the published decisional law tends to involve sufficiency challenges — i.e., claims that the Com
. Appellee’s failure to offer any evidence to support the subjective aspect of his claim of self-defense highlights the difficulties associated with assigning the Commonwealth the burden to disprove a defense where necessary facts are peculiarly within the knowledge and control of the defense. In any event, the fact that the burden has been assigned to the Commonwealth — erroneously, as addressed in Part I supra — not only to affirmatively prove the elements of the offenses charged, but also to disprove self-defense where it is at issue, does not remove the necessity that there be some actual evidence to support the elements of the defense when proffered.
This author would note that this case illustrates the wisdom of the common law rule placing the burden upon the defendant to prove self-defense. Although the defense ulti
. In view of our holding, we need not consider the final claim of the Commonwealth regarding whether, even if appellee had presented a prima facie case of self-defense, the Superior Court’s holding would still be in error because the prior robbery conviction of the victim was too remote in time to be deemed admissible.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring.
I join the Majority Opinion in its resolution of the instant appeal and, indeed, in its analysis of the reasons which support our reversal of the Superior Court’s decision and our reinstatement of Appellee’s judgment of sentence. Respectfully, however, I cannot join in the majority’s discussion in Part I, the sentiments expressed in footnote 10, or the discussion regarding the obligation of a defendant to testify when asserting a claim of self-defense.
The scope of the inquiry properly before the Court, as reflected in our February 16, 2011 order granting limited allocatur, is as follows:
Does the Superior Court’s decision overturning [Appellee’s] first-degree murder conviction contradict this Court’s precedent holding that: (A) one who instigates or continues the underlying difficulty may not later claim self-defense; (B) deadly force may not be used against an unarmed victim who is backing away, and thus no longer poses a threat; and (C) even when a prima facie case of self-defense is presented, a trial court has discretion to exclude evidence of a victim’s prior criminal convictions that were remote in time?
Commonwealth v. Mouzon,
With that delineation of the issues before us as our guide, I cannot embrace the exploratory mission pursued by the majority in Part I of its opinion where it undertakes to reanalyze and reconstruct decades of precedent regarding the Commonwealth’s burden of proof with respect to the establishment of self-defense, culminating in the conclusion contained in footnote 10 that such caselaw was in error.
That reevaluation is clearly not before us, and such dicta does not necessarily reflect the views of the individual justices of this Court. As such, I believe, this discussion has no place in an otherwise precedential expression of a majority holding and disposition.
Further, I have serious misgivings regarding the degree to which the majority not only encourages future parties to question our Court’s prior precedent interpreting the Crimes Code concerning the proper burden of proof in a claim of self-defense, but also provides significant fodder for such a challenge. Specifically, the majority begins by casting the burden of proof having been placed on the Commonwealth as a “relatively recent ... adjustment” of the law — although it has been the law of the Commonwealth for almost 40 years — and continues for the next four pages to assail this Court’s precedent during those four decades, ostensibly in order to give “context” to the issue before us. Majority Opinion at 741-43. Although the majority contends that the federal Constitution, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court, does not constitute an impediment to a change in the burden, that Court is not the final word on the proper burden of proof in this Commonwealth, which is principally a matter of statutory
Even more troublesome is the majority’s seeming resolution of the burden of proof question in footnote 10, where in it concludes, “in any event, the fact that the burden has been assigned to the Commonwealth — erroneously, as addressed in Part I supra — not only to affirmatively prove the elements of the offenses charged, but also to disprove self-defense where it is at issue, does not remove the necessity that there be some actual evidence to support the elements of the defense when proffered.” Id. at 752 n. 10 (emphasis added). As indicated above, Part I of the Majority Opinion purportedly provides background, and my reading of it reveals nothing more than a stern criticism of the current state of the law. Moreover, this discussion is in conflict with the majority’s proper acknowledgment that appeal was not allowed in this ease to reconsider or adjust the burden of proof, id. at 742-43, and I add that neither party has questioned or even suggested any dissatisfaction with our current standard in their briefs. Thus, to be clear, the burden remains upon the Commonwealth to disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt.
I also distance myself from the majority’s strong suggestion that a defendant needs to provide affirmative evidence to support the subjective aspect of his claim of self-defense — i.e., testimony from the defendant himself or herself — and that a defendant should not be able to rely upon inferences from the circumstances surrounding the events. See id. at 751-53. My disassociation with this suggestion applies equally to the Chief Justice’s personal views offered on the issue. Id. at 752-53 n. 10.
Like the burden of proof question discussed above, the issue of the nature of evidence which must be offered to establish a reasonable belief that force is immediately necessary to protect the defendant was neither raised in this appeal nor mentioned by the parties. Thus, the majority’s discussion — raising the specter that a defendant must testify on his or her own behalf in order to prove a claim of self-defense — is dicta. Moreover, resolution of such issue involves complex and significant concerns, including possible inconsistency with our prior case law. See Commonwealth v. Torres,