In addition to maintaining this blog on its website, ETKS has long-maintained a separate blog entitled “New York Criminal Defense,” accessible at http://newyorkcriminaldefense.blogspot.com/.
Bullcoming v New Mexico (131 SCt 2705) Applied By the Fourth Department
In recent years, the application of the right to confrontation in the context of laboratory or DNA test evidence has been the subject of much litigation at the United States Supreme Court In Melendez-Diaz v Massachusetts (129 S.Ct. 2527 [2009]), the Supreme Court held that it violate the right of confrontation for a prosecutor to submit a chemical drug test report without the testimony of a person who performed the test subject to confrontation....
read moreA Prospective Juror with Implied Bias Is Unqualified Even If She Gives An Unequivocal Assurance She Can Be Fair and Impartial
The Court of Appeals has repeatedly held that a prospective juror with actual bias, such as an opinion that the defendant is guilty, is qualified to serve on a jury as long as gives an unequivocal assurance she can be fair and impartial (People v Nicholas, 98 NY2d 749, 751 [2002]; People v Arnold, 96 NY2d 358, 362 [2001]; People v Johnson, 94 NY2d 600, 614 [2000]). The rule is different with respect to...
read moreInsufficient Factual Allegations Render Complaint Jurisdictionally Defective
We don’t see misuse of NYCTA MetroCard charges very often, but the Court of Appeals decided such a case today in People v Hightower (#223 decided December 23, 2011). What makes the case applicable to us is that the defendant pled guilty to Petit Larceny, and a unanimous Court of Appeals dismissed the charges because the accusatory was jurisdictionally defective. Hightower was charged with three charges, PL and two relating to the specific activity...
read moreYou Say Potato, I Say Potaaato, You Say Robbery in the First Degree, I Say Petit Larceny (Or Robbery in the Third Degree)
by Jill PapernoSpecial Assistant Monroe County Public Defender 1. When Is An Alleged Robbery Not A Robbery? (Was it a forcible stealing?) Penal Law Section 160 defines robbery as “forcible stealing.” The statute states “A person forcibly steals property and commits robbery when, in the course of committing a larceny, he uses or threatens the immediate use of physical force upon another person for the purpose of:1. Preventing or overcoming resistance to the taking...
read moreConsecutive Sentences on Misdeameanors – Statutory Limitations on the Use of Probation to Extend the Sentence
byJanet C. SomesAssistant Monroe County Public Defender Jim’s Eckert recently posted a column on consecutive sentences on misdemeanors (see). This post addresses an additional aspect of that issue Sometimes courts try to extend a person’s liability as far out as possible, and use probation on the second offense to do so by imposing a maximum sentence of a year or six months on one crime and imposing a probationary sentence on another. It is...
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