State of Connecticut v. James Shaw, Jr.

Summary

The court affirmed the defendant’s conviction for first degree assault, holding that the self-defense instruction properly required retreat from a shared dwelling when the alleged assailant was also a co-occupant and adequately conveyed the governing reasonable-belief standard. It also upheld admission of the defendant’s prior manslaughter conviction for impeachment and rejected challenges based on the State’s loss of a witness’s earlier recorded statement because the loss was unintentional, prejudice was slight, and the defendant had an opportunity for cross-examination. Bogdanski, C. J., dissenting, would have ordered a new trial because the majority’s codweller exception improperly expanded the statutory retreat rule and violated due process.