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/.
Reversal for Brady Violation Absent Specific Request for Information
n People v Hunter (6/12/08) a unanimous Court of Appeals held that in a sex case, where the defense was consent, it was a Brady violation requiring reversal for the prosecutor to withhold from the defense information that in another pending case the same complainant has accused a man of rape and his claim was that the sex had been consensual. The Court rejected the argument that the subsequent guilty plea by the defendant...
read moreCumulative Effect of Evidentiary Errors and Prosecutorial Misconduct Deprived Defendant of Fair Trial
What is rarer, reversal due to the admission of hearsay or reversal due to prosecutorial misconduct? How about reversal for unpreserved hearsay violations? Or reversal for unpreserved prosecutorial misconduct? In People v Ballerstein 2008 NY Slip Op 05127 [4th Dept 6/6/08], a decision sure to be cited often, the Fourth Department held that, despite not being preserved for review, the cumulative effect of evidentiary errors and prosecutorial misconduct deprived the defendant of his right...
read moreForfeiting Peremptory Challenges Used in a Discriminatory Manner is a Permissible Remedy for Batson Violations
The Court of Appeals, in People v Luciano, 2008 NY Slip Op 04898 [6/3/08] has held that forfeiture or permeptory challenges is a permissible remedy for attorneys who exercise peremtory challenges in violation of the constitiuion under Batson v Kentucky, 476 US 79 [1986] and its progeny. However, the Court noted that the free exercise of peremptory challenges is a venerable trial tool that should be denied only in rare circumstances. In fashioning the...
read moreTaking Keys to Car is a Seizure Even if Car Isn’t Searched
In People v Colligan, 2008 NY Slip Op 05133 [4th Dept 6/6/2008] the Court held that it was error to deny a suppression motion where, prior to the issuance of a warrant to search a car, the police took the keys to the car from the defendant and sat out with the automobile. Since the hearing record did not show that probable cause existed as such time, this was unlawful in that [a]lthough they...
read moreNew York State Ignores All Four Appellate Divisions
I previously reported that the Appellate Division, Fourt Department, in People of State of New York ex rel. Lucas Foote v Piscotti, held that persons charged with violating the terms of post release supervision not imposed by judges are entitled to immediate release. In fact, the other three Appellate Divisions have all issued similar decisions (People ex rel Lewis Ward, __ AD3d __, 2008 WL 2051102 [1st Dept 5/1/08]; People ex rel Gerard v...
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