The phrase "fear for your life" is used so frequently that many people believe fear alone is the standard for determining whether deadly force is justified under Texas law. Even police officers use the phrase. However, as txinvestigator first pointed out over a year ago, merely being in fear for your life does not justify the use of deadly force. The fear must be coupled with a reasonable belief that deadly force is “immediately necessary to prevent the other's use or attempted use of unlawful deadly force� against you. (In fact, you can be stone cold fearless, but still be justified in using deadly force, if you “reasonably believe . . .�)
However, it is important to note that there is nothing wrong with making a statement that you were in fear for your life. If you didn’t say that, or something to that effect, I think many people might question whether you really believed deadly force was necessary. Further, it is not necessary to state that, “I reasonably believed that deadly force was immediately necessary to prevent the other from using unlawful deadly force against me." In fact, if you do say precisely that, a lot of folks are going to give you a quizzical look, to say the least. What is critically important is that you are able to articulate facts that make it clear that you reasonably believed deadly force was immediately necessary to protect yourself, or someone else.
Fear alone is not enough to use deadly force, but it is almost always present if one believes their life is in immediate jeopardy.
Chas.