Suge Knight's lawyer says mogul legally blind in one eye

Suge Knight’s failing eyesight will be a focal point of his murder defense, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Knight is legally blind in his left eye and was reeling from punches to his face when he gunned his engine Jan. 29 and unintentionally killed Terry Carter in the parking lot of Tam’s Burgers in Compton, Calif., lawyer Matthew Fletcher told the Daily News.

Considering the alleged handicap, it wasn’t a viable option for Knight to veer left down the street behind Tam’s after he first reversed to escape a physical confrontation at his driver-side window, the lawyer said.

"How can he go left if he can’t see?” Fletcher asked rhetorically.

Knight believed he was the victim of an armed assault and had no choice but to flee forward and accidentally mow down Cle “Bone” Sloan and Carter, Fletcher said.

“This was a literal presentation of being blindsided. He was attacked on his blind side,” the lawyer said. “To me it seems obvious. He’s being punched in the face, he can’t see.”

Fletcher reiterated his prior argument that Knight also had a right to stand his ground and drive forward because if he reversed down the street or turned wildly and then crashed, he would have been a sitting duck.

“If you are reasonably in fear for your life, with two or three men attacking you, you have the right not only to fight back but to pursue the person who put you in that peril,” Fletcher told The News.

The lawyer said California jury instruction No. 505 is clear when it states that a defendant claiming justifiable homicide "is not required to retreat” and can even “pursue an assailant until the danger of (death or great bodily harm) has passed.”