STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Daniel Joseph DEVENS, Appellant.
No. A12-2065.
Supreme Court of Minnesota.
Aug. 20, 2014.
852 N.W.2d 255
Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Sharon E. Jacks, Assistant State Public Defender, Saint Paul, Minnesota, for appellant.
OPINION
LILLEHAUG, Justice.
At his trial for third-degree assault, appellant Daniel Joseph Devens claimed that he acted in self-defense during a hallway confrontation with a non-resident of his apartment building. Over Devens’ objection, the district court instructed the jury that Devens had a duty to retreat if reasonably possible before acting in self-defense. After the jury found him guilty of third-degree assault and the lesser included offense of fifth-degree assault, Devens appealed. The court of appeals affirmed. We granted review on the issue of whether the duty to retreat applies when a defendant claims to have acted in self-defense in a hallway of his apartment building against a non-resident of the building. Because we conclude that Devens had a duty to retreat if reasonably possible, we affirm.
I.
Around midnight on October 14, 2011, Devens heard loud noises coming from the hallway of his secured apartment building in Waseca. He opened his apartment door to investigate. Approximately 35 feet down the hallway, Devens saw an individual—whom he later learned was J.P.—knocking on a neighbor‘s apartment door. Devens did not recognize J.P. but he knew that J.P. did not live there.1
Devens stepped out of his apartment and asked J.P. to leave. J.P. did not. Devens then approached J.P. and again asked J.P. to leave. This time, J.P. complied. The two men walked down the hallway toward the exit.
Devens and J.P. offer conflicting accounts of what happened next. According to Devens, without warning, J.P. attempted to punch him and Devens simply defended himself. But according to J.P., Devens started the fight. Devens allegedly “jumped” J.P. from behind and hit J.P. on his back, shoulders, and head. During the struggle, J.P. fell down a flight of stairs and lost consciousness.2
After an investigation, the State charged Devens with first-degree assault, in violation of
Before trial, the State requested that a duty-to-retreat instruction accompany any self-defense jury instruction. The State argued that because Devens was in the hallway of his apartment building during the confrontation with J.P., not in his own apartment, he had a duty to retreat if reasonably possible before acting in self-defense. Devens disagreed. He argued that, under the “castle doctrine,” he had no duty to retreat because the hallway of his secured apartment building was his home for the purpose of self-defense.
The district court agreed with the State. The district court reasoned that, unlike when one acts in self-defense in his or her home, in this case there was somewhere safer for Devens to go: his own apartment. In other words, the district court decided that the hallway was not Devens’ home for the purpose of self-defense.
At trial, Devens testified that he acted in self-defense. Before the case was submitted to the jury, and consistent with a prior order, the district court instructed the jury that “[t]he legal excuse of self-defense is available only to those who act honestly and in good faith. This includes the duty to retreat or avoid the danger if reasonably possible.” In so doing, the district court followed the duty-to-retreat instruction from CRIMJIG 7.08.3 See 10 Minn. Dist. Judges Ass‘n, Minnesota Practice—Jury Instruction Guides, Criminal, CRIMJIG 7.08 (5th ed.2006).
The jury found Devens guilty of third-degree assault and the lesser included offense of fifth-degree assault. The district court stayed imposition of sentence and placed Devens on probation.
Devens appealed. Among other things, he argued that the district court erred in giving a duty-to-retreat instruction. In an unpublished opinion, the court of appeals affirmed. State v. Devens, No. A12-2065, 2013 WL 6389594, at *1 (Minn.App. Dec. 9, 2013). The court of appeals concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in giving a duty-to-retreat instruction because “there was somewhere safer for [Devens] to go at the time of the altercation....” Id. at *3.
We granted Devens’ petition for further review on the duty-to-retreat issue. We denied review on all other issues.
II.
Whether the duty to retreat applies in this case is a question of law that we review de novo. See State v. Ndikum, 815 N.W.2d 816, 818 (Minn.2012). We afford district courts significant discretion to craft jury instructions. State v. Peou, 579 N.W.2d 471, 476 (Minn.1998). But a jury instruction is erroneous if it materially misstates the law. State v. Pendleton, 567 N.W.2d 265, 269-70 (Minn.1997).
In Minnesota, a person may act in self-defense if he or she reasonably believes that force is necessary and uses only the level of force reasonably necessary to prevent the bodily harm feared. State v. Glowacki, 630 N.W.2d 392, 399 (Minn. 2001). This right of self-defense is codified at
We have read
The fourth element of self-defense—the duty to retreat—is at issue in this case. Generally, the law requires that a person retreat if reasonably possible before acting in self-defense. Glowacki, 630 N.W.2d at 399. This is because the law presumes that there is somewhere safer to go—home. Id. at 401. As a result, if a person is outside his or her home and can safely retreat, then the person‘s use of force is unreasonable as a matter of law. Id. at 399-400; see also State v. Buchanan, 431 N.W.2d 542, 545-46, 548 (Minn. 1988) (noting that the defendant had a duty to retreat before acting in self-defense because the shooting took place in the parking lot adjacent to his apartment).
However, under the so-called “castle doctrine,” a person need not retreat from his or her home before acting in self-defense.4 State v. Johnson, 719 N.W.2d 619, 622, 629 (Minn.2006) (noting that the defendant did not have a duty to retreat before acting in self-defense because the shooting took place in the upstairs bedroom of his home); State v. Carothers, 594 N.W.2d 897, 900 (Minn.1999) (“[E]arly Minnesota caselaw rejected a duty to retreat in cases of self-defense occurring in one‘s home.“). After all, the home is “a place critical for the protection of the family.” Carothers, 594 N.W.2d at 901. One‘s home is a “sanctuary.” Id. at 900. “Requiring retreat from the home before acting in self-defense would require one to leave one‘s safest place.”5 Glowacki, 630 N.W.2d at 401.
B.
Here, Devens asks that we extend the castle doctrine to the hallway of his apartment building. We decline to do so.
Devens enjoyed a significant property interest in his own apartment. For example, he could exclude even his landlord unless the landlord had a reasonable business purpose for entering and made a good faith effort to notify Devens of the entry. See
Because Devens did not exercise exclusive (or anything close to exclusive) possession and control over the apartment hallway, it was not his safest place or his sanctuary. Without these essential characteristics, see, e.g., Carothers, 594 N.W.2d at 900 (noting that early Minnesota case law was “fiercely protective of the home as a sanctuary“), the apartment hallway was not Devens’ castle for the purpose of self-defense.
Moreover, extending the castle doctrine to the apartment hallway might encourage, rather than discourage, unnecessary and potentially deadly confrontations. State v. Shippey, 10 Minn. 223, 232 (Gil. 178, 184) (1865) (“Where the [defendant] has not retreated from or attempted to shun the combat, but has ... unnecessarily entered into it, his act is not one of self-defense.“). Indeed, in this very case, Devens left the relative safety of his own apartment to confront J.P. in a non-exclusive space owned by another.
Nevertheless, Devens argues that he did not have a duty to retreat from the apartment hallway because his apartment building was (or was supposed to be) a secured building. We disagree. The safety benefit of a locked front door does not mean that all of the non-exclusive space behind that locked door—including lobbies, hallways, stairs, elevators, laundry rooms, pools, and mailrooms—is a sanctuary critical for the protection of self and family. See Hernandez, 746 N.Y.S.2d 434, 774 N.E.2d at 203 (“Whether a person is entitled to the benefit of the ‘no duty to retreat’ rule should not turn on how well protected the area in question is at the time of the attack.“).
Devens also argues that the definition of “[d]welling” from Minnesota‘s burglary statute should apply in this case. Although that definition is broad enough to include an apartment hallway, see
Based on this analysis, the district court did not err when it instructed the jury that, before acting in self-defense, Devens had a duty to retreat, if reasonably possible, while in a non-exclusive hallway of his apartment building.
Affirmed.