## Facts

- Arturo Bonano left home carrying a loaded revolver in his belt.
- He returned earlier than expected, found his wife had gone to a nearby party, and struck her when she came home.
- The couple’s 11-year-old daughter reported the assault to her uncle Carlos, Bonano’s brother-in-law.
- Carlos armed himself with a knife and went to Bonano’s home.
- As Carlos approached and began to mount the porch steps, Bonano stood in the doorway/porch area with the revolver.
- Testimony indicated Carlos drew the knife and made a threatening remark; Bonano fired, and Carlos later died from the gunshot wound.
- Bonano’s primary defense at trial was self-defense based on an imminent knife attack at or near the entrance to his home.

## Issues

1. Whether the self-defense jury instruction was erroneous for failing to explain the no-duty-to-retreat rule when attacked in one’s dwelling (including potential coverage of the curtilage) where the shooting occurred at the doorway/porch.
2. Whether the manslaughter instruction was erroneous for limiting manslaughter to unintentional killings, thereby removing voluntary manslaughter from the jury’s consideration as a lesser-included offense.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of New Jersey reversed the second-degree murder conviction and remanded for a new trial.
- The trial court erred by charging a general duty to retreat without instructing on the dwelling/curtilage exception potentially applicable to the doorway/porch setting.
- The trial court also erred by charging manslaughter as limited to unintentional killings, which could have misled the jury and prevented consideration of voluntary manslaughter.

## Legal Principles

- Self-defense in homicide requires a reasonable (actual or apparent) necessity to avoid death or serious bodily harm and the use of no more force than reasonably necessary.
- The general duty to retreat before using deadly force does not apply when a person is attacked in the person’s own dwelling; many authorities extend this no-retreat rule to the home’s curtilage.
- When facts could place the confrontation within the dwelling or curtilage, the jury must be instructed on the no-retreat exception and allowed to apply it to the location of the encounter.
- Manslaughter is not confined to unintentional killings; it includes intentional killings mitigated by recognized doctrines such as heat of passion upon adequate provocation.
- A jury charge that removes a supported lesser-included homicide option (such as voluntary manslaughter) can be reversible error because it distorts the range of permissible verdicts.

## Conclusion

Because the jury was not properly instructed on the possible absence of a duty to retreat at the home’s entrance area and was incorrectly told that manslaughter required an unintentional killing, the conviction could not stand and a new trial was required.


State v. Bonano, 59 N.J. 515 (1971)