Two CPW Decisions From the Court of Appeals
The Court of Appeals decided two CPW cases today. In People v Jones (#185 decided 11/19/13), defendant was charged with CPW2 for possessing a weapon in his home, having been previously convicted of a crime. He claimed that, despite his prior conviction, he could rely on PL 265.03(3)’s exception for home or business. The Court of Appeals agreed with the Appellate Division decision below that PL265.03(3) creates an exception to the home or business...
read moreFailure to State The Obvious Might Constitute Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
byJames Eckert, Assistant Monroe County Public Defender When dealing with a Hearing Court who knows what the law is, there is a real temptation to simply ask the right questions knowing that the judge knows what the argument is as a result. The problem is that appellate courts look for counsel to conclude the hearing by saying “the fact that the police didn’t have a description and didn’t have a report of a crime...
read moreDoes a defendant have to sign an affidavit in support of a suppression motion?
byJill Paperno, Special Assistant Monroe County Public Defender Although it has been twenty years since the New York Court of Appeals in People v. Mendoza (82 NY2d 415 [1993]) held that a defendant does not have to sign an affidavit in support of a suppression motion, some local judges still believe they must. Hopefully, the Fourth Department’s recent decision in People v. Starlet Battle, decided on 9/27/13, will help put this issue to rest. In...
read moreStatutory Language Cannot Be Simply Ignored By Prosecutors
One would think that the proposition that District Attorney cannot ignore or flaunt unambiguous statutory language is not a remarkable proposition. Indeed, as attorneys who prosecute others for acting as though adherence to the the strict requirements of law is only optional, one would think that prosecutors would be sticklers for compliance with statutory language. As detailed below, however, the Monroe County District Attorney’s office apparently believed that it could ignore the statutory provisions...
read moreCrime and Punishment, Part 2; Where you end up usually depends on where you start
The other catalyst was Steve Earle’s “Ellis Unit One,” written from the perspective of a regular-Joe, death row prison guard who’s not handling the stress of his job real well: . . .Last night I dreamed that I woke up with straps across my chest,And something cold and black running through my lungs,And even Jesus couldn’t save me, though I know he did his best,But he don’t live on Ellis Unit One. So he...
read moreCrime and Punishment, Part 1
A couple of things (not counting but maybe not unrelated to the new Pope’s turn toward inclusiveness – what Frank Bruni in this morning’s NYT called “a refreshing example of humility in a world with too little of it”) got me thinking about crime and punishment, forgiveness (or not), how our criminal justice system deals with offenders, and whether the results are equitable, or rational, or based on sound premises. This was the first....
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