If the Connecticut’s most respected jurists can’t agree whether a criminal defendant had notice he was committing first-degree assault, how could the defendant, a 21-year-old high school dropout, know?

In State v. Miranda, released Jan. 4, the state Appellate Court says he couldn’t. Finding that his due-process rights were violated, the court throws out Santos Miranda’s conviction of first-degree assault for failing to stop his girlfriend from severely beating her 4-month-old daughter.