Convictions Based Entirely Upon Confession Reversed; Error to Allow Experiment in Evidence; Proof of Victim’s Helplessness Sufficient

In this sexual-crimes case, the Third Department discussed (among other issues): (1) the application of speedy trial rules when an initial indictment is dismissed and then charges stemming from the same incident are brought more than six months later in a second indictment; (2) the sufficiency of proof of the victim’s helplessness (intoxication); and (3) the inadmissibility of an experiment (opening a door with a credit card to demonstrate how defendant could have entered the house) which had nothing to do with the trial evidence.  All but two of the convictions were affirmed.  In reversing the two convictions which were based entirely on the defendant’s confession, the Third Department wrote:

We find that defendant’s convictions of criminal sexual act in the first degree must  be  reversed. “A person may not be convicted of any offense solely upon evidence of a confession or admission made by him [or her] without additional proof that the offense charged  has been  committed”  (CPL 60.50). While this additional proof “need  not corroborate every detail of the confession” …, both  of defendant’s criminal sexual act convictions were based solely upon his uncorroborated admissions that he  performed  oral sex on the victim. Defendant’s presence at the scene did not provide the necessary corroboration because the issue is not his identity or connection to the crime but, instead, whether  the crimes  occurred  at all. As there was no corroborating proof “of whatever weight,” these charges must be dismissed… . People v Bjork, 104014, 3rd Dept, 4-25-13