People v. Godsey

In People v. Godsey, 54 Mich App 316, 321; 220 NW2d 801 (1974), the defendant claimed that he heard his neighbor throwing rocks and pieces of concrete at his house. The defendant went out on his porch and was struck by a piece of concrete. He then grabbed a baseball bat and confronted the victim, who was holding another piece of concrete, and standing on or near their property line. Id. The defendant struck his neighbor with the bat twice, killing him. Id. The victim's body was found on his own side of the property line. Id. The defendant claimed self-defense. The issue on appeal was whether the trial court erred in not giving a no-duty-to-retreat instruction. Id. at 318, 323. The Court in Godsey examined the Supreme Court case of Pond v. People, 8 Mich 150, 176 (1860), and read Pond as extending the right of self defense without retreat "only to inhabited outbuildings located within the curtilage of the home." Id. at 321. The Godsey Court stated that the contrary rule - that a man may utilize deadly force without retreat whenever attacked in the curtilage of his home - would effectively limit the applicability of the prevailing retreat requirement to situations in which the defendant was on another's property. Such a result, to us, is both an unwarranted extension of Michigan law and inconsistent with the high value placed on human life by any enlightened society. Id. The Courtheld that the no-duty-to-retreat rule extended "only to inhabited outbuildings located within the curtilage of the home." The Court specifically rejected the notion that the rule extended to the outdoor portions of a curtilage. Id.