Appeals Court: No Duty to Retreat in Ohio Homes

Hamilton County's First District Court of Appeals decided a case, reported by the Ohio Bar Reports as follows:

Criminal Law-Assault-Self-Defense-Home-Duty to Retreat

In bench trial, defendant was convicted of aggravated assault arising out of his firing a warning shot, while he was in his apartment, toward an attacker who had threatened defendant with bodily harm outside apartment building; pursued him to his apartment; and entered to attack him. Trial court erred as matter of law since defendant had right, while in his own home, to use all reasonable force, including deadly force, to repel attacker threatening death or great bodily harm, and he had no duty to retreat, even if there was an opportunity to do so.
State v. Miller (1st Dist.-2002) 149 Ohio App.3d 782