Ten Simple Rules
The below are general rules, often subject to obscure exceptions, and if unusual factors warrant, even very good general advice is best ignored (hence the name). Still, there are things which are not news, but worth a reminder. 1 – In your opening statement don’t take on a burden, don’t offer or promise to prove things. 2 – You are entitled to know the precise contents of jury notes, so long as they bear...
read more710.30 Un-noticed statements and voluntariness
Please join me as we take a trip deep into the weeds. Fact – the People are required to serve a 710.30 notice when they intend to use statements of the defendant, which meet other criteria which will not be enumerated here. Fact – Sometimes the People do not serve a 710.30 notice as to some or all statements meeting those criteria. Fact – The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, has ruled that using such...
read moreWhat Will Be Done Regarding The Many People Illegally Resentenced To Post-Release Supervision?
In April, 2008 the Court of Appeals in People v Sparber (10 NY3d 457 [2008]), held that only a judge, and not prison or court clerks can impose Post Release Supervision [PRS], even when sentencing courts failed to pronounce PRS as required by law. New York reacted to this this holding by enacting Correction Law 601-d which purports to empower courts to re-sentence person to PRS, even after they have already served their complete...
read moreKing Solomon and Guilty Pleas
Mr. Brown (_ NY3d __, 2010 NY Slip Op 01376 [2/18/10]) was in jail while awaiting prosecution on a robbery charge. From the moment of arrest he consistently proclaimed his innocence. Then the defendant’s son was in the hospital and in a coma as a result of multiple gunshot wounds. Jail officials deny the man’s request for permission to go hospital to see his child. At the next court appearance, the court informed of...
read moreAnother Wrongful Conviction Exoneration After a False Confession
On Thursday, February 5, 2010, Freddie Peacock became the 250th person exonerated by DNA evidence after conviction, when his 1976 rape conviction was vacated in Monroe County. The court vacated Mr. Peacock’s conviction pursuant to a motion filed jointly by the Innocence Project, ETKS partner Donald M. Thompson, and Kelly Wolford, chief of appeals for the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office. As detailed here Mr. Peacock, fought longer for his exoneration after his release...
read moreMelendez-Diaz Lives. Now Seek to Have it Applied
As we have previously written, in 2004, the United States Supreme Court, in Crawford v. Washington (541 U.S. 36 [2004]), overruled its prior holding in Ohio v Roberts ( 41 U.S. 36 [2004]) that reliability of hearsay evidence is the test for admissibility, and held that “Where testimonial evidence is at issue, however, the Sixth Amendment demands what the common law required: unavailability and a prior opportunity for cross-examination…. [T]he only indicium of reliability...
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