People v. Aiken
New York Court of Appeals
828 N.E.2d 74 (2005)
Relevant factsFree
After a violent history including a prior stabbing and repeated threats from his neighbor, Aiken struck and killed the neighbor with a metal pipe while standing in his own apartment doorway as the neighbor approached him in the shared hallway threatening to kill him; the trial court declined to instruct the jury that Aiken had no duty to retreat because he was near the threshold of his home, and the jury convicted him of first-degree manslaughter.
IssueFree
Whether, in New York, a defendant standing in the doorway between his apartment and a common hallway has a duty to retreat into the dwelling, if he can safely do so, before he may justifiably use deadly force to repel an attacker.