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Defense Counsel’s Failure to Object to the Prosecutor’s Mischaracterization of the Strength and Meaning of DNA Evidence Constituted Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Rivera, over a dissent, reversed the Appellate Divsion and determined defendant was not afforded effective assistance of counsel. In her summation, the prosecutor mischaracterized the strength and meaning of the DNA evidence. Defense counsel had effectively, through cross-examination, called into question the strength and meaning of the DNA evidence. But defense counsel did not object to the prosecutor’s unsubstantiated claims in her summation. The court concluded the failure to object could not be justified as a viable defense strategy and required reversal:

The People’s case was circumstantial because there were no eyewitnesses to the crime and no forensic evidence that clearly established defendant’s guilt. Other than testimony that placed defendant and others in the victim’s company around the time of her death, and defendant’s statement that he engaged in consensual sex with the victim, the People had no evidence that linked her to defendant. To meet the People’s burden of proof, the prosecutor relied heavily on the results of DNA testing to connect defendant to the murder. However, the DNA analysis was also circumstantial because it did not “match” defendant’s DNA to the DNA collected at the crime scene. Instead, the test only indicated that defendant could not be excluded from the pool of male DNA contributors, and the expert testimony provided no statistical comparison to measure the significance of those results.

Notwithstanding the known limitations of this DNA evidence and the indeterminate conclusions about the test results drawn by the People’s own experts, the prosecutor in summation misrepresented the DNA analysis, including arguing the evidence established that defendant’s DNA was at the crime scene and on a critical piece of evidence linked to the victim’s murder. In light of the powerful influence of DNA evidence on juries, the opportunity for juror confusion regarding the limited probative value of the DNA methodology employed in this case, and the qualified nature of the test results, defense counsel’s failure to object rendered him ineffective. People v Wright, 2015 NY Slip Op 05621, CtApp 7-1-15

 

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