Colorado Jury Instructions, Criminal (2023)
CHAPTER F: DEFINITIONS

F:87: DEADLY PHYSICAL FORCE

“Deadly physical force” means force, the intended, natural, and probable consequence of which is to produce death, and which does, in fact, produce death.

COMMENT

1. See § 18-1-901(3)(d), C.R.S. 2022.

2. See People v. Opana, 2017 CO 56, PP 9-17, 395 P.3d 757, 759-62 (overruling People v. Vasquez, 148 P.3d 326 (Colo. App. 2006), and holding that–in the context of the phrase “the intended, natural, and probable consequence of which is to produce death”–the word “intended” does not refer to the defendant’s subjective intent, but rather to what would normally or typically be intended); People v. Ferguson, 43 P.3d 705 (Colo. App. 2001) (trial court, in giving jury instruction concerning self-defense in attempted murder and assault prosecution where the victim did not die, erred in defining deadly physical force as “force, the intended, natural, and probable consequence of which is to produce death”; the error was not harmless because the jury was permitted to hold defendant to a higher standard in establishing self-defense than what was required by law).

3. In 2017, the Committee added the citation to People v. Opana in Comment 2, and it removed a prior citation to People v. Vasquez.

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