The Second Department determined providing the unredacted statement to the jury by mistake deprived defendant of a fair trial, without regard to whether the mistake contributed to defendant's conviction:
CPL 310.20(1) provides, “[u]pon retiring to deliberate, the jurors may take with them: . . . Any exhibits received in evidence at the trial which the court, after according the parties an opportunity to be heard upon the matter, in its discretion permits them to take.” Here, the defendant's written statement was admitted into evidence at trial, but the parties agreed to redact the statement so as to omit a portion of it indicating, in part, that the defendant's girlfriend “attempted to say I [the defendant] raped her [the defendant's girlfriend].” The parties further agreed that they would return to court before the jury received that exhibit. The redacted portion of the statement was unrelated to the robbery for which the defendant was standing trial. However, in violation of CPL 310.20(1) and the parties' express agreement, the defendant's statement was mistakenly provided to the jury, without the attorneys having been notified first, and without the statement having been fully redacted … . Instead of granting the defense attorney's motion for a mistrial, as it should have done in view of the highly prejudicial nature of the redacted portion of the statement, the Supreme Court gave an instruction regarding the statement that was ineffectual in curing the prejudice. “The right to a fair trial is self-standing,” and where error operates to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, an appellate court “must reverse the conviction and grant a new trial, quite without regard to any evaluation as to whether the errors contributed to the defendant's conviction” … . People v Reid, 2016 NY Slip Op 03535, 2nd Dept 5-4-16
CRIMINAL LAW (PROVIDING AN UNREDACTED STATEMENT TO THE JURY BY MISTAKE DEPRIVED DEFENDANT OF A FAIR TRIAL AND REQUIRED REVERSAL)/EVIDENCE (CRIMINAL LAW, PROVIDING AN UNREDACTED STATEMENT TO THE JURY BY MISTAKE DEPRIVED DEFENDANT OF A FAIR TRIAL AND REQUIRED REVERSAL)