State v. Smalls, 312 Conn. 148

Victor Smalls was convicted by a jury of murder under § 53a-54a and possession of a pistol without a permit under § 29-35 (a).
The trial court sentenced Smalls to a total effective term of 45 years’ imprisonment.
The Appellate Court affirmed, concluding the evidence could support Smalls as a principal or an accessory based on concert of action.
This court granted certification limited to whether the Appellate Court properly applied the concert of action doctrine (Diaz) to sustain the conviction.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal as improvidently granted; the issues of probable cause and sufficiency were not addressed on the merits.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Certification improvidently granted?	Smalls argues the grant was improper.	State contends certification was proper.	Appeal dismissed as improvidently granted.
Concert of action sufficiency for conviction?	Smalls challenged the sufficiency and/or application of concert of action.	State defended sufficiency under concert of action doctrine.	Not decided on the merits; not part of the appeal.

State v. Diaz, 237 Conn. 518 (1996) (concert of action doctrine relevance in accomplice liability)
State v. Smalls, 136 Conn. App. 197 (2012) (Appellate Court on concert of action and sufficiency)
State v. Smalls, 306 Conn. 906 (2012) (certification and review of concert-of-action issue)