People v. Valentin

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Robert A. Sackett, J.), rendered September 28, 2011, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 20 years, reversed, on the law, and the matter remanded for a new trial.

In charging the jury on the justification defense, the court erred when, over defendant’s objection, it included the initial aggressor exception to the defense embodied in Penal Law § 35.15 (1) (b). This concept, that defendant would not have been justified in using deadly physical force if he…