Tagged: evidence

NY Appellate Court Upholds Vacatur of Conviction Based Upon DNA Evidence

On February 27, 2014, the NY Appellate Division, First Department, unanimously affirmed a prior judgment entered in Bronx County of New York (Clark, D.), vacating Tyrone Hicks’ conviction for Attempted Rape in the First Degree (PL § 110/130.35[1]) and Attempted Sodomy in the First Degree (PL § 110/130.50[1]), based upon his presentation of DNA evidence that had been unearthed by his lawyer, Professor Adele Bernhard of New York Law School. At trial, the only evidence linking Hicks to the crime was the uncorroborated eyewitness identification by the victim. The jury rejected Hicks’ alibi defense, which consisted of testimony from his son-in-law, who claimed that Hicks was home when the attack occurred.

In 2009, Professor Bernhard, who directs the NYLS Post-Conviction Innocence Clinic, successfully obtained testing of genetic material found under the victim’s fingernails that had been collected shortly after the crime. The results of such testing concluded that there was male genetic material recovered from the victim’s fingernail scrapings that did not match the defendant’s DNA. Professor Bernhard petitioned the court to vacate Hick’s conviction based upon both the DNA results, and the likelihood that Hicks had been misidentified as the assailant.

In vacating Hicks’ conviction, the Bronx County Court concluded that a new trial was warranted under CPL § 440.10 (1) (g), since the results of the DNA testing “could not have been discovered prior to [Hicks’] trial,” and were “unquestionably material to the issues of identity” – undermining the “sole evidence connecting [Hicks] to the crime.” The court observed that “the DNA test results ruling out the defendant’s genetic profile [had] pronounced forensic value where there [was] multiple differing descriptions of the perpetrator by the sole identifying witness and no physical evidence linking the defendant to the crime.” Id. at 4.  The court explained that the jury may have seen it to be “a particularly powerful piece of evidence, especially where the identity of [the] attacker was the primary issue at trial.”

The Appellate Court upheld the lower court’s decision to vacate the conviction based upon the defendant’s showing that the DNA results created a “reasonable probability that he would have obtained a more favorable verdict.” The Court also concluded that “the DNA evidence [was] material and exculpatory because it support[ed] identifying someone other than defendant as the attacker.” Notably, the Court rejected the government’s claim that the DNA results were cumulative, and not newly discovered under CPL 440.10 (g). Specifically, the Court noted that given the recent amendments to CPL 440.10, namely CPL 440.10 (1) (g-1), the defendant “no longer ha[d] to show that the results of [DNA] testing is newly discovered evidence in order to seek vacatur of a judgment of conviction.”

Related Readings

Compensation for Exonerees

Providing compensation for wrongfully convicted individuals has been an ongoing dilemma within the United States and for governments abroad. A recent blog, Compensating Exonerees: US v. UK, by Professor Lissa Griffin of Pace Law School discusses the UK’s current struggle to articulate a standard of proof for exonerees who are seeking compensation.

Related Readings:

Battle of Experts: Controversy in Shaken Baby Case Set for NY Court

A New York court is set to hear testimony that will decide whether a shift in the medical community over the prognosis of shaken baby syndrome (“SBS”) constitutes newly discovered evidence under Article 440 of the New York Criminal Procedure Law. Supreme Court Justice James Piampiano has ordered a hearing in People v. Rene Bailey after being presented with strong evidence that the medical community’s standard for diagnosing shaken baby syndrome has significantly shifted over the years since Bailey’s conviction.

 Rene Bailey, once a daycare provider, was convicted of violently shaking a two year old child and causing severe brain injuries that resulted in the child’s death. At trial, the proof against Bailey rested primarily upon the testimony of a state medical examiner, who had claimed that the child’s internal brain injuries could only be caused by a violent shaking of the  body (SBS), and could not be attributed to any other cause known within the medical community at the time.

Contrary to the state’s medical examiner, medical experts for Bailey have now opined that a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome should not have rested exclusively on the presentation of the child’s internal brain injuries, consisting of subdural hematoma, retinal hemorrhaging, and cerebral edema (“triad of injuries”). As of today, many members within the medical community no longer promote an exclusive diagnosis of SBS based solely upon the presentation of internal brain injuries, realizing that causes unassociated with shaking may be the root of the issue. Since Bailey’s conviction, medical studies have also shown that a child may suffer the “triad of injuries” as a result of impact to the brain caused by common short distance falls. Notably, as opined in an article by NY Times writer Emily Bazelon, some biomechanical engineers have raised doubts, [in the absence of external injuries], about whether it’s even possible to shake a baby to death.

Aside from new medical testimony, the Court will also entertain evidence that has been discovered by her attorney, Professor Adele Bernhard of New York Law School, which shows that her client may be factually innocent. The evidence presented by a new witness appears to support Bailey’s continuous declaration that she had not shaken the alleged victim, and further corroborates the observation of another child, who was present at the time of the occurrence and had initially stated to the police that the alleged victim had jumped off a chair and hit her head on the ground.  Justice Piampiano has also reserved judgment upon whether further discovery will be ordered in the matter, including whether Bailey’s request for the State to produce notes from an interview of a third child eyewitness will be granted. According to court papers, a third child may have also been present at the time of the alleged occurrence, and the child may have made exculpatory declarations to police consistent with Bailey’s version of the event  that were never disclosed to trial counsel.

Related Readings:

 

Recent SCOTUS Decision Restricting Fifth Amendment Protection

In Kansas v. Cheever, the Supreme Court recently held that when a defendant presents evidence of lack of mens rea through a psychological expert who has examined him the government may, consistent with the Fifth Amendment, rebut that evidence with testimony from a different expert who examined him in a pretrial, court-ordered examination.   In doing so, the Court clarified and arguably extended its holding in Buchanan v. Kentucky, 483 U.S. 402 (1987), where it allowed such proof to rebut a defense of extreme emotional disturbance, and where the court-ordered examination had been requested by both parties.  The Cheever Court held that the defendant’s assertion of voluntary intoxication that relied on an expert was sufficient to permit the prosecution to rebut because it is a “mental status” defense, even though voluntary intoxication is not a “mental disease or defect” under Kansas law.

Of course, in 1981 in Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454 (1981), the Supreme Court held that a court-ordered psychiatric examination violated the defendant’s fifth amendment rights where the defendant neither requested the examination nor put his mental capacity in dispute at trial.

The Cheever decision was unanimous.  Yet it is not clear why the content of a defendant’s discussion with a court-appointed expert should be revealed to a jury to rebut the testimony of another expert.  The Court indicated that this was essential to fair and effective impeachment, but, of course, the defendant’s expert is wholly subject to cross.  Certainly, in such a case, the defendant is being “compelled” to be a witness against himself, and, given the prosecution’s ability to cross examine that expert, fairness does not really justify that.  Moreover, although the court likened the situation to allowing a defendant to waive his privilege as to some subjects and not others, that is really not the case, since the defendant did not waive his privilege at the time when he spoke with the court-appointed expert, nor was the same psychiatric issue being investigated.   To the extent that it makes candor costly, the Cheever decision may well have a negative impact on the reliability of court-ordered pre-trial examinations that frequently are conducted for a variety of psychiatric reasons.

Cheever also claimed that if the rebuttal was properly permitted, the testimony exceeded proper limits in that it described broad subjects that had been discussed, i.e., the shooting from his perspective, intimated that he had  a personality disorder and discussing his alleged infatuation with criminals.  The Kansas Supreme Court had not addressed this issue, however, and the Supreme Court declined to address it in the first instance.

THE Mistake in Zimmerman’s Trial

As the closing arguments are being delivered in the Zimmerman trial, Prof. Bennett L. Gershman of Pace Law School takes a look at the Prosecutor’s case so far. He asserts in his most recent take on the case that the prosecution made THE mistake in the trial when it “introduced in its own case the several audio and video statements made by George Zimmerman to the police after he shot and killed Trayvon Martin” and therefore the prosecutor “allow[ed] Zimmerman’s statements to be heard by the jury, and his demeanor seen by the jury, without being able to confront and cross-examine him in court.” What do you think – will this blunder cost the prosecutor a victory?