COCAINE INVALIDATES SELF-DEFENSE

'Aura Of Violence' In Drug Possession Justifies Conviction

Topeka -- Mark Jacques was cold and tired of waiting outside a grocery
store, so he went after his cousin.

His cousin, Ronald Everitt, was trying to buy cocaine in March 1998, at a
Wichita home where Jacques wasn't welcome. When Jacques arrived, Everitt
was angry, because he thought the deal would be ruined.

Everitt knocked Jacques down and kicked him in the face. Both men had steak
knives, and Jacques used his. Everitt died soon after. Jacques claimed he
acted in self-defense.

The Kansas Supreme Court declared Friday that Jacques couldn't do that. In
a unanimous ruling, the justices upheld Jacques' first-degree murder
conviction and life sentence.

The court said Jacques was committing a "forcible felony" when he killed
Everitt. A person who kills another while committing a forcible felony --
rape, kidnapping, robbery and aggravated battery are specifically listed --
can't claim self-defense under Kansas law.

District Judge Gregory Waller had told jurors in Jacques' case that if they
concluded he tried to buy cocaine, he couldn't act in self-defense. Jacques
thought the instruction was improper and appealed.

In the court's opinion, Justice Bob Abbott acknowledged that "in the
abstract," possession of illegal drugs does not involve physical force or
violence.

"However, there is an aura of violence surrounding the possession of
illegal drugs," Abbott wrote, noting that drug possession brings with it
the threat of robbery or physical violence.