The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Rivera, determined defense counsel was not ineffective. Counsel, following defendant’s wishes. pursued a misidentification defense and did not pursue a justification defense. A video depicted actions which raised the possibility the shooting was justified as self-defense. However, defendant maintained he was not the shooter depicted in the video:
Here, we cannot say that defendant received less than meaningful representation … . Defendant concedes that he instructed counsel to pursue a misidentification defense, and he does not claim that counsel’s professional efforts in that regard were constitutionally deficient. Rather, defendant claims he was deprived of effective assistance when counsel failed to present a defense of justification. We disagree.
Each defense theory available to defendant posed its own challenges, and the choice of one, instead of the other, was not “determinative of the verdict” … . We are not presented with a case in which defendant’s chosen defense theory was self destructive and ensured conviction. Nor did the path taken by counsel undermine his ability to deploy professional skill and expertise in presenting the chosen defense. For the same reasons, counsel was not ineffective for objecting to any charge that would have presented justification to the jury as a response to the jury’s request for further instructions. Thus, we cannot say that counsel’s representation was constitutionally deficient at the time because he vigorously pursued the defense defendant approved rather than the one defendant rejected outright. People v Clark, 2016 NY Slip Op 08485, CtApp 12-20-16
CRIMINAL LAW (DEFENSE COUNSEL NOT INEFFECTIVE FOR FAILING TO ASSERT THE JUSTIFICATION DEFENSE. DEFENDANT INSISTED HE WAS NOT THE SHOOTER AND INSTRUCTED COUNSEL NOT TO RAISE JUSTIFICATION AS A DEFENSE)/ATTORNEYS (CRIMINAL LAW, DEFENSE COUNSEL NOT INEFFECTIVE FOR FAILING TO ASSERT THE JUSTIFICATION DEFENSE. DEFENDANT INSISTED HE WAS NOT THE SHOOTER AND INSTRUCTED COUNSEL NOT TO RAISE JUSTIFICATION AS A DEFENSE)/INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL (DEFENSE COUNSEL NOT INEFFECTIVE FOR FAILING TO ASSERT THE JUSTIFICATION DEFENSE. DEFENDANT INSISTED HE WAS NOT THE SHOOTER AND INSTRUCTED COUNSEL NOT TO RAISE JUSTIFICATION AS A DEFENSE)