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1. The police officer's claim of self-defense should be
While walking home one evening, an off-duty police officer was accosted by a stranger. The stranger had been drinking and mistakenly thought the police officer was a man who was having an affair with his wife. Intending to frighten the police officer but not to harm him, the stranger pulled out a knife, screamed obscenities, and told the police officer he was going to kill him. Frightened and reasonably believing the stranger was going to kill him and that using deadly force was his only salvation, the police officer took out his service revolver and shot and killed the stranger. The police officer is charged with murder.
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B is incorrect. It deals with the difference at common law between murder and manslaughter and does not involve the police officer's self-defense claim at all.
C is incorrect. This answer choice is contradicted by the wording in the question. The question states that the police officer's belief that the stranger was going to kill him was reasonable. In addition, the actual intent of the stranger, as well as the question of whether the police officer's reasonable belief was, in reality, correct, would not enter into the deliberation regarding the propriety of the police officer's self-defense claim.
D is incorrect. This answer is also contradicted by the wording of the question, which clearly indicates that the police officer's belief that using deadly force was «his only salvation» was also reasonable. The threat to the police officer was immediate and deadly, thereby allowing his self-defense claim to succeed. The police officer was not required to retreat or repel with less than deadly force. He only shot the stranger because he reasonably believed that it was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm from the stranger's unlawful use of force, so his claim of self-defense should be sustained.