Tagged: criminal defense

Judges Quarrel About Counsel’s Silence During Prosecutor’s PowerPoint Summation

Recently, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction of a defendant accused of killing her husband’s one-year-old daughter, although she had claimed that her counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the prosecution’s questionable PowerPoint presentation during summation. People v. Santiago, NY Slip Op 01261 (2014). At trial, the prosecution claimed that the defendant, Cheryl Santiago, had suffocated her husband’s child after becoming frustrated that the child would not fall asleep. Id. at *5. An expert witness for the prosecution testified that it would have taken the defendant approximately four to six minutes to suffocate the child by using her hand to cover the child’s mouth and nose. Id. at *6.

In summation, the prosecutor presented to the jury  a six minute PowerPoint presentation that consisted of a series of slides using a postmortem photograph of the child. Alluding to the expert’s opinion regarding the amount of time it took for the child to suffocate, the prosecutor suggested to the jury that “if there’s any question in your mind how long six minutes take, take a look at this.” Id. at *7. Without objection from defense counsel, the prosecutor proceeded to play the PowerPoint slides, “with each successive slide progressively fading, until the final slide was entirely white, thus eliminating the image of the [child].” Id.  Notably, some of the slides also contained captions that described the child’s deteriorating medical condition –stating that at one and a half to two minutes- “struggle ends;” four minutes- “brain death occurs;” and four and a half to six minutes –“cardiac death.” Id.

The Court rejected the defendant’s claim that trial counsel was infective for failing to object to the PowerPoint presentation, noting that counsel’s lapse was not a “clear-cut” or “dispositive” omission. Id. at *13. The Court observed that a postmortem photograph itself was properly admitted at trial, and that “[t]he slides depicting an already admitted photograph, with captions accurately tracking prior medical testimony, might reasonably be regarded as relevant and fair, albeit dramatic, commentary on the medical evidence, and not simply an appeal to the jury’s emotions.”Id.

The Court did note that it did not know how the PowerPoint presentation aided the jury in its fact-finding function, or how it was relevant to the cause of the child’s death. Id. Furthermore, the Court also observed that the defendant’s failure to make a timely objection to the PowerPoint’s admission –which would have required the trial court to rule on its admissibility- precluded the Court to extend its inquiry further as to whether the trial court abused its discretion and that such error required a reversal of the judgment of conviction. Id. at *14.  In noting this observation, however, the Court implicitly suggested that its inquiry of the matter was cut short due to counsel’s failure (i.e. ineffective assistance of counsel) –and, by its own admission, an objection would have placed the trial court in an unlikely situation of finding that the PowerPoint evidence had any probative value, and even if so, that its value outweighed its prejudicial impact. Id. at *15 (conceding that the Powerpoint failed to “aid[] the jury in its fact-finding function”).

In dissent, Judge Rivera observed that the PowerPoint presentation had manipulated the evidence and was “designed to inflame the passion of the jury in order to engender prejudice against the defendant.” Id. at 1 (dissent, j. Rivera). She concluded that the Court had erred in not finding that counsel’s failure to object to the PowerPoint presentation had amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel. She noted that counsel’s lapse permitted the prosecution to taint the jury’s deliberative process –which denied the defendant a fair trial. Id. at (“The prosecutor’s use of this Powerpoint imagery was an impermissible attempt to secure a verdict based on emotion and repulsion for the defendant, rather than facts.”).

Judge Rivera was also extremely troubled by the inflammatory nature of the Powerpoint, noting that “[a]ny doubts as to the emotional responses engendered by the presentation are easily dispelled by viewing the slide show, wherein the picture of a 21 month old child, in her pink pajamas, with white froth on her lips, her body prone and lifeless, is projected over and over, fading slightly with each slide, until all that remains is a white background and the memory of her tiny body. One simply cannot be but moved by this depiction.” Id. at 3.

Notably, the ever-changing dynamics of courtroom advocacy due to the technological advances in “trial presentation” software may continue to cause issues for criminal defendants when utilized in an improper fashion by prosecutors. Although such technology can provide each party a better, faster and clearer way of presenting information than conventional trial form, it can also lead the jury away from “the four corners of the evidence” and hinder the truth seeking process. Hopefully, the courts will use caution when allowing evidence to be presented in an unconventional format, and take consideration of the fact that a juror may become more occupied with the entertainment value of the presentation rather than the relevance of the information being conveyed.

Related Readings

  • People v. Caldavado, 78 AD 3d 962 (2nd Dept. 2010) (permitting a “PowerPoint presentation as to the injuries associated with shaken baby syndrome and in allowing an expert witness to shake a doll in order to demonstrate the force necessary to inflict shaken baby syndrome.”).
  • People v. Yates, 290 AD 2d 888 (3rd Dept. 2002) (finding no error in the presentation of  a computer-generated video demonstrating the mechanics of “shaken baby syndrome.”).

NY Court of Appeals Upends Police Tricks Behind Interrogation Doors

False confessions have long been recognized as one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. Case studies have proven that an individual’s confession to a crime is not always indicative of the confessor’s actual guilt. In fact, a number of external factors may lead an individual to falsely confess to committing a crime. According to studies conducted by the Innocence Project, many false confessions have been prompted by conditions in which the confessor was placed under  duress during police interrogations, or was prodded to give false information as a result of police coercion or subterfuge tactics. Laurie Shanks, clinical professor of law at Albany Law School in Albany, recently explained that “[t]here’s a perception that people don’t confess to crimes they didn’t commit, [b]ut the science is that absolutely they do.”

Yet, the rule of law determining the voluntariness of a confessor’s statement, when such statements are adduced by police subterfuge, has remained a vital and perplexing issue within our criminal justice system. The admissibility of such confessions has been a hotly debated topic among criminal defense practitioners and prosecutors, irrespective of recent case studies proving the fallibility of such confessions. In spite of recent findings, prosecutors have continued to hold the upper hand when arguing that such confessions are voluntary and admissible at trial, relying on the proposition that certain police ruses are essential to conducting meaningful interrogations of suspects, and vital to the police’s ability to expeditiously solve certain crimes.  Under this guise, the Courts have heeded to the government’s “demands” and have consequently become more laxed in uprooting such questionable police tactics –noting that confessions are “essential to society’s compelling interest in finding, convicting, and punishing those who violate the law.” McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. 171, 181 (1991). As such, courts around the nation have routinely accepted that “deceit and subterfuge are within the ‘bag of tricks’ that police may use in interrogating suspects.” State v. Schumacher, 37 P.3d 6, 13-14 (Idaho Ct. App. 2001); See also United States v. Bell, 367 F.3d 452, 461 (5th Cir. 2004) (observing that deception is “not alone sufficient to render a confession inadmissible”).  

In New York, however, it appears that the courts are becoming less reluctant to address this significant legal issue , and more inclined than many of their sister state courts to fully determine on a case by case determination whether a confession could be deemed involuntary when police misrepresentations work to overcome a confessor’s will. See N.Y. Criminal Procedure Law § 60.45 [2][b][i]  (treating as “involuntarily made” a statement of a defendant that was  elicited “by means of any promise or statement of fact, which promise or statement creates a substantial risk that the defendant might falsely incriminate himself”).

Notably, the New York Court of Appeals has recently made clear that not all police subterfuge is acceptable during the interrogations of suspects. People v. Thomas, 2014 WL 641516 (N.Y. 2014). In Thomas, the defendant had been prodded by police to take responsibility for injuries suffered by his four-month-old son, who died from intracranial injuries purportedly caused by abusively inflicted head trauma, in order to save his wife from arrest. The Court held that the defendant’s confession,  admitting that he had inflicted traumatic head injuries on the infant, was involuntary as a result of “[t]he various misrepresentations and false assurances used [by] [police] to elicit and shape [the] defendant’s admissions.” Id. The court explained that the police officers false representations to the defendant had manifestly raised a substantial risk of false incrimination. The Court was extremely troubled by police lying to the defendant “that his wife had blamed him for [their] [son’s] injuries and then threatened that, if he did not take responsibility, they would “scoop” Ms. Hicks out from the hospital and bring her in, since one of them must have injured the child.” Id.  The Court also observed that “there [was] not a single inculpatory fact in defendant’s confession that was not suggested to him. He did not know what to say to save his wife and child from the harm he was led to believe his silence would cause.” Id.

The New York Court of Appeals also recently affirmed the Second Department’s decision in People v.  Aveni, 100 A.D.3d 228 (2d Dep’t 2012) where the appellate court  had also found that the defendant’s confession was coerced  as a result of the police repeatedly deceiving the defendant about the status of his girlfriend’s health condition. In Aveni, the defendant had been prompted by police to make incriminating statements about the herion overdose of his girlfriend. During interrogation, the police had falsely told the defendant that his girlfriend was still alive, “and implicitly threaten[ed] him with a homicide charge if he remained silent.” The court explained that the police made the defendant believe that “the consequences of remaining silent would lead to the [girlfriend’s] death, since the physicians would be unable to treat her, which “could be a problem” for him.” Id. In upholding the Second Department’s decision, the NY Court of Appeals observed that “[t]he false prospect of being severely penalized for remaining silent, raised by defendant’s interrogators, was, in the court’s view, incompatible with a finding that defendant’s confession was voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt.” People v. Aveni, 2014 WL 641511 (N.Y. 2014).  It noted that “the Appellate Division used the correct legal standard in its reversal, [and] [i]ts determination that the potential to overwhelm defendant’s free will was realized was plainly one of fact.” Id.

Steven Drizin, clinical professor at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago commented on the recent decisions in New York, noting that “[t]he court did not set any hard and fast rules, but it did issue some clear warnings that these tactics will be scrutinized closely in future.”  He explained that until now “[t]here’s been too much deference given to police officers, and they’re accustomed to having free rein with suspects behind interrogation doors.”

Related Readings

Second Circuit: Admittance of Co-Defendant’s Redacted Confession Violated Confrontation Clause

A recent decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals may provide guidance to criminal defense practitioners seeking to (1) suppress the involuntary confession of a client, and (2) limit the impact of a co-defendants’ redacted confession being admitted at trial. The Second Circuit, sitting en banc, affirmed a panel’s decision to vacate the convictions of three defendants found guilty of conspiring to commit a Hobbs Act robbery, among other things, and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. The Court had been asked by the government to review a panel decision that had formerly held that the “confession” of one of the defendant’s was involuntary and should not have been admitted against the declarant at trial. The government also sought review of the panel’s determination that the admission of the “confession” was also prejudicial to the declarant’s co-defendants, requiring a new trial. United States v. Taylor, 736 F.3d 661 (2d Cir. 2013).

A panel of the Court had held that the defendant’s Miranda waiver was not knowing and voluntary, given that the defendant was clearly mentally incapacitated during his interview with federal agents. Id. at 669. The panel noted that the defendant had ingested a quantity of Xanax pills immediately before his arrest, and not long before the interrogation by the FBI had begun. The panel pointed out that the defendant was “in and out of consciousness while giving his statement, and in a trance or a stupor most of the time when not actually asleep.” Id. at 670. As such, the panel determined that “the officers’ persistent questioning took undue advantage of [the] [defendants’] diminished mental state, and ultimately overbore his will.” Id. The panel concluded that the admission of the defendant’s involuntary confessions was a critical part of the prosecution’s case, and could not be deemed “harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. at 672.

Notably, the Second Circuit (en banc) withdrew the panel’s prior decision, and issued a superseding opinion. States v. Taylor, 2014 WL 814861, (2d Cir. 2014). It not only reaffirmed the panel’s prior decision in all respects, but further held that the admission of the defendant’s “confession” at trial violated the Confrontation Clause rights of the other co-defendants. The Court ruled that the redacted confession simply did not comply with Bruton, and made it obvious to jurors that the declarant had implicated his co-defendants in the crime. The Court explained that the redacted version of the defendant’s statement suggested that the original statements contained actual names.

The Court took observance of the fact that the redacted statement had contained both the declarant’s name and the name of the government’s cooperating witness (“Luana Miller”), while referencing the other co-defendants by “two other individuals” or “driver.”  Id. The Court reasoned that the redacted confession allowed jurors to notice that “Miller is the one person involved who was cooperating, and [] infer that the obvious purpose of the meticulously crafted partial redaction was to corroborate Miller’s testimony against the rest of the group, not to shield confederates.” Id. at *11. The Court noted that “[i]f the defendant had been trying to avoid naming his confederates, he would not have identified one of them-Miller-in the very phrase in which the names of the other confederates are omitted.” Id.

The Court explained that “[o]nce it becomes obvious that names have been pruned from the text, the choice of implied identity is narrow. The unnamed persons correspond by number (two) and by role to the pair of co-defendants.” Id. at *12. The Court noted that the “obviously redacted confession … points directly to the defendant[s], and it accuses the defendant[s] in a manner similar to … a testifying codefendant’s accusatory finger.” Id. (quoting Gray, 523 U.S. at 194).  The Court concluded that the “awkward circumlocution used to reference other participants, coupled with the overt naming of Luana Miller (only), is so unnatural, suggestive, and conspicuous as to offend Bruton, Gray, and Jass.” Id.

While the Second Circuit’s decision is applaudable, it may leave many criminal defense practitioners pondering over the slew of similar cases that have come before the Circuit in the past without any success on this  issue. Both the language and form (identifying by name the declarant & cooperator(s), while others as “person/individual”) that the Court identified in Taylor appears to have been customarily approved by the Courts. Indeed, Federal prosecutors have routinely been able to utilize such redacted confessions, although the defense has routinely objected to its admission based upon the obvious nature of the redaction and the likelihood that the jury will infer that their client had been implicated by their cohort.  Nevertheless, the Second Circuit has finally spoken against this once unfettered practice, and provided some much needed guidance on the issue.

Related Readings

Criminal Defense Panel and Networking Event at Pace Law School

The Criminal Justice Society invites you to its Criminal Defense Panel event on Thursday, March 20, 2014 at 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm. The event will take place in the Tudor Room, on the Law School Campus in White Plains. Click Criminal Defense Panel Event for more information. If anyone would like to volunteer to write a summary of the event, let us know.

Additionally, we would like to bring your attention to another networking event. Phi Alpha Delta, the Sports, Entertainment & Arts Law Society, and the Corporate and Commercial Law Society are sponsoring a Pace Alumni Networking Event. Alumni will join Pace students on Monday, March 24, 2014, from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm in the Tudor Room to share their successes, careers, and advice with future Pace graduates. Hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be provided.

Search of Closed Containers Incident to Arrest: Is a Cell Phone Just Another Container? by Thomas Kapp

The Pace Criminal Justice Center is honored to feature an article by Thomas Kapp,  Search of Closed Containers Incident to Arrest: Is a Cell Phone Just Another Container?  Thomas Kapp is the Senior Investigative Attorney at the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office and a member of the Pace Criminal Justice Center Advisory Board. In his article, he

review[s] the current federal standard for a search incident to arrest of containers and how some federal and other state courts have addressed the search of a cell phone.  In addition, [he] discusses the development of the law in New York of the right of police to conduct a search incident to arrest of a closed container and will also address whether that right includes the search of a cell phone incident to arrest, an issue which may be ripe for our courts.

As the article notes, this issue will be decided this term by the United States Supreme Court.  Mr. Kapp concludes his analysis by assessing the future of searches of cell phones incident to arrest in the State of New York.

Enjoy reading the full article: Thomas Kapp – Search of Closed Containers Incident to Arrest: Is a Cell Phone Just Another Container?