State of Connecticut v. Brandon Montrell Bellamy

Summary

The court affirmed the Appellate Court's judgment, holding that defense counsel implicitly waived the defendant's unpreserved challenge to the identification instruction. The record showed that counsel received the proposed instructions, had multiple opportunities to review and discuss them, affirmatively accepted the charge, and later confirmed that the substance of the instructions was acceptable. The court also declined to overturn the governing waiver rule for jury-instruction claims. The separate opinions would have rejected that broad waiver rule but concurred in the judgment because the instructional claim was not constitutional.