ETKS announces its expansion in The Daily Record
“The Easton Thompson Kasperek Shiffrin law firm has announced its first expansion since being founded in 2008. Partners William Easton, Don Thompson, Larry Kasperek and Brian Shiffrin have been joined by Rhian Jones, who is officially ‘of counsel,’ now working within the firm’s offices in Suite 243 in the Powers Building, 16 W. Main St. Recent Syracuse University School of Law graduate Danielle Wild, who interned at the firm in the summer of 2014,...
read moreDoctor Who: Expert Testimony in an Eyewitness Identification Case
by Bill Easton Over the last eight years the Court of Appeals has addressed the admissibility of expert testimony in identification cases at least five times. It is scheduled to revisit the issue yet again in the near future. (People v McCullough, 126 AD3d 1452 [4th Dept 2015], lv to appeal granted 25 NY3d 1079). During this time, the Second Circuit has also issued a rare full panel decision on the same issue (Young v Conway,...
read moreProsecutorial Misconduct and Preservation
As evidenced by the frequency with which prosecutorial misconduct, in summation especially, is not preserved for appeal, many defense attorneys are unclear about what amounts to misconduct. As a soon-to-be new attorney, I am admittedly no exception. Of course, some comments are so egregious that their impropriety is unmistakable. In 2000, the late Judge Judith Kaye, then Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, wrote “Prosecutors play a distinctive role in the search for...
read moreUnless a defendant is advised of post-release supervision before pleading guilty, the conviction cannot later be counted as a predicate felony.
If a defendant was not advised of the post-release supervision component of his sentence before pleading guilty, it is unconstitutional for a court to consider that conviction for predicate felony purposes — even if the conviction preceded the Catu decision. At least, this is now true for courts within the First Department. In its 2005 decision, People v Catu, the New York Court of Appeals made clear that post-release supervision is a direct consequence...
read moreAnother successful challenge to denial of Parole Release.
We’ve discussed this in the prior posts on this site. CLPR Article 78 special proceedings are the means to challenge the denial of release to parole supervision. On June 2nd, Acting Supreme Court Justice John L. Michalski issued a Memorandum and Order vacating the Parole Board’s imposition of a twenty four month hold, and instead imposed a twelve month term effectively ordering the Respondent’s release in the Matter of Caufield...
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