Wrongful Convictions and the Exclusion of Expert Testimony on False Confessions
The headline in today’s Rochester Democrat and Chronicle was that Mark Christie had pled guilty to the 1988 murder of Viola Manville. This plea follows the April 28, 2010 vacateur of the 1992 Monroe County murder conviction of Frank Sterling for that very murder. (For a detailed account of the Frank Sterling case, see). As was the case with such other wrongful conviction exonerations in which the Fourth Department had affirmed the wrongful convictions,...
read moreNew Website and Online Forum for Rochester Area Criminal Defense Attorneys
The Monroe County Public Defender’s Office has introduced a new website (see) which, in part, contains links to some of that office’s excellent training materials (see) and to numerous helpful articles on aspects of New York criminal law authored by Jim Eckert (see), a frequent contributor to this blog.Additionally, the website is a portal to the “Defender Discussion Forum”. The forum, is a bulletin board that will allow defense attorneys (criminal and family court)...
read moreLeave Applications Must Raise All Federal Issues Raised on Appeal
Appellate attorneys in drafting an application for leave to appeal the New York Court of Appeals want to highlight the issue or issues most likely to be deemed worth y of the attention of that Court. As former Clerk of the Court, Stuart Cohen explained the issues most likely to warrant a grant of leave toappeal are: 1. Those on which the judicial departments of the Appellate Divisionhave split;2. Those presenting questions of widespread,...
read moreSome More Thoughts on Alibi Cases
Jill Paperno’s post on alibi cases (see), has provoked these additional thoughts about the subject by two of her colleagues at he Monroe County Public Defender’s Office: Comments on SOME THOUGHTS ON ALIBI CASESBy David JuergensAssistant Monroe County Public Defender CPL 250.20 (1) requires the People to serve their demand for notice of alibi “not more than twenty days after arraignment.” Often, the People attempt to satisfy this statutory requirement by adding a boilerplate...
read moreSOME THOUGHTS ON ALIBI CASES
byJill PapernoSecond Assistant Monroe County Publiv Defender Every now and then, we as defense attorneys are confronted with the possibility, and perhaps the necessity, of introducing evidence of alibi (at the time of the commission of the crime charged the defendant was at some place or places other than the scene of the crime). For most of us, our initial inclination is to run for cover. But in that rare case where alibi is...
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