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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 6396
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 2714
Referred to Committee on JUDICIARY
Introduced by:
(JUD)
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E DUTY TO RETREAT IN A HOUSE OF
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 53a-19 of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2021): 2
(a) Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c) of this section, a 3
person is justified in using reasonable physical force upon another 4
person to defend himself or a third person from what he reasonably 5
believes to be the use or imminent use of physical force, and he may use 6
such degree of force which he reasonably believes to be necessary for 7
such purpose; except that deadly physical force may not be used unless 8
the actor reasonably believes that such other person is (1) using or about 9
to use deadly physical force, or (2) inflicting or about to inflict great 10
bodily harm. 11
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, a 12
person is not justified in using deadly physical force upon another 13
person if he or she knows that he or she can avoid the necessity of using 14
such force with complete safety (1) by retreating, except that the actor 15 Raised Bill No. 6396
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shall not be required to retreat (A) if he or she is in (i) a house of religious 16
worship owned by, or held in trust for the use of, any religious 17
organization, (ii) his or her dwelling, as defined in section 53a-100, or 18
(iii) his or her place of work and was not the initial aggressor, or (B) if 19
he or she is a peace officer or a special policeman appointed under 20
section 29-18b, or a private person assisting such peace officer or special 21
policeman at his or her direction, and acting pursuant to section 53a-22, 22
or (2) by surrendering possession of property to a person asserting a 23
claim of right thereto, or (3) by complying with a demand that he or she 24
abstain from performing an act which he or she is not obliged to 25
perform. 26
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, a 27
person is not justified in using physical force when (1) with intent to 28
cause physical injury or death to another person, he provokes the use of 29
physical force by such other person, or (2) he is the initial aggressor, 30
except that his use of physical force upon another person under such 31
circumstances is justifiable if he withdraws from the encounter and 32
effectively communicates to such other person his intent to do so, but 33
such other person notwithstanding continues or threatens the use of 34
physical force, or (3) the physical force involved was the product of a 35
combat by agreement not specifically authorized by law. 36
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2021 53a-19
Statement of Purpose:
To eliminate the requirement that a person in a house of religious
worship retreat before using deadly physical force to defend himself or
herself or a third person.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]