CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Perhaps signaling that they are winding down their deliberations, jurors in the trial of a Harvard grad student accused of murdering a teen during a fight asked the judge Tuesday to reiterate the legal definition of self-defense.

Alexander Pring-Wilson, 26, appeared wide-eyed Tuesday as he watched jurors file into the courtroom, where Justice Regina Quinlan read the requested instructions at about 12:40 p.m. EST.

The defendant claims he stabbed 18-year-old Michael Colono in self-defense in the early-morning hours of April 12, 2003. Prosecutors say Pring-Wilson murdered the teen in a drunken rage after hearing the teen and his friends laugh at him.

The panel of seven men and five women took notes and listened carefully while Quinlan read the self-defense charge. They have deliberated 13 and a half hours over three days and will resume their discussion Wednesday morning.

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In Massachusetts, homicide by reason of self-defense is justifiable, but it must meet three elements. First, jurors must consider Pring-Wilson's mental state. They need to consider whether he reasonably believed he was in imminent danger of suffering serious bodily harm or death, and that the only way to save himself was to use his knife.

He also must have exhausted any "reasonable alternative means of escape." The judge pointed out that "this rule does not impose an absolute duty to retreat," meaning that, in the 70 seconds — according to cellphone records — the men's paths crossed, Pring-Wilson may not have believed that he could run or walk away to escape.

The final element to justify self-defense is that the defendant must have used "no more force than is necessary to defend himself." This factor may be the biggest challenge for jurors to agree on, given the force necessary to puncture the victim's right ventricle. However, according to witness testimony, no one, not even the victim, was aware at first that Colono had been fatally stabbed.

If jurors have any reasonable doubt about whether Pring-Wilson acted in self-defense, they must choose acquittal. Prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that at least one of the three elements needed for self-defense is absent.

During two and a half hours on the stand, the defendant described being viciously attacked by Colono and Colono's cousin. Shortly after the stabbing, the victim and his friends drove away, and Pring-Wilson called 911 to report being an innocent bystander to a stabbing.

Colono died at 3:15 a.m. at a Boston hospital. An autopsy determined he suffered two incise wounds and three stab wounds, one of which was a fatal thrust to his heart. The blade pierced several layers of clothes and the cartilage of a single rib.

Jurors will receive a full copy of the entire jury instructions Wednesday. The judge initially denied their request Friday for a transcript of the lengthy document, which includes instructions on first- and second-degree murder, manslaughter, self-defense, and others, but reconsidered her position.

Pring-Wilson faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder. The lowest charge, manslaughter, carries a possible sentence of probation to 20 years.

Court TV is broadcasting the trial live.