Opinion ID: 1916716
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: admission of deceased's conviction

Text: A significant aspect of the defendant's claim of self-defense involved demonstrating the violent character and reputation of the deceased. The defendant assigns as error the trial court's refusal to allow the defendant to introduce evidence concerning the deceased's conviction for the unlawful discharge of a firearm in violation of § 53-203 of the General Statutes. [4] This court has made clear that in a homicide prosecution where self-defense is claimed the defendant may employ evidence of the deceased's conviction of crimes of violence to attempt to show the violent character of the deceased. State v. Miranda, 176 Conn. 107,114, 405 A.2d 622 (1978). The admission of such evidence, however, lies within the discretion of the trial court. Id., 114. The trial court excluded evidence of the deceased's unlawful discharge conviction because the conviction lacked the element of violence. The defendant contests this conclusion. It is not necessary for us to decide whether the conviction contained the requisite element of violence because, even if it is assumed that it did, the exclusion of evidence concerning the conviction was harmless. In view of the evidence concerning the deceased which the defendant was allowed to introduce, [5] evidence concerning the unlawful discharge conviction would have been merely cumulative. See State v. Gooch, 186 Conn. 17, 24, 438 A.2d 867 (1982); State v. Jones, 132 Conn. 682, 683, 47 A.2d 185 (1946). There was, therefore, no abuse of discretion by the trial judge in excluding it.