You are here: / / DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO VACATE HIS CONVICTION, BASED UPON NEWLY DISCOVERED...
,

DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO VACATE HIS CONVICTION, BASED UPON NEWLY DISCOVERED EVIDENCE IN THE FORM OF A DECLARATION AGAINST PENAL INTEREST, SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED.

The Fourth Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined defendant’s motion to vacate his conviction based upon newly discovered evidence of third party culpability should have been granted. The statement at issue was admissible as a declaration against penal interest:

As a preliminary matter, it is well settled that a “less stringent standard [of admissibility] applies, where, as here, the declaration is offered by defendant to exonerate himself rather than by the People, to inculpate him” … . Furthermore, the statements attributed to the third party “all but rule[] out a motive [for the third party] to falsify” the statement that it was he, and not defendant, who shot the victim … . Thus, in determining whether there is evidence constituting “sufficient supportive evidence of a declaration against penal interest[,] . . . [t]he crucial inquiry focuses on the intrinsic trustworthiness of the statement as confirmed by competent evidence independent of the declaration itself . . . Supportive evidence is sufficient if it establishes a reasonable possibility that the statement might be true. Whether [the hearing] court believes the statement to be true is irrelevant . . . If the proponent of the statement is able to establish this possibility of trustworthiness, it is the function of the jury alone to determine whether the declaration is sufficient to create reasonable doubt of guilt” … .

We conclude that defendant provided sufficient competent evidence at the 440.10 hearing to establish the “possibility of trustworthiness” of the third party’s statement to satisfy the requirement that the statement was a declaration against penal interest. In addition to the trial testimony that the third party was engaged in a dispute with the victim, the third party admitted to the defense investigator that he was present and engaged in a dispute with the victim and that he wrote the letters to defendant’s former attorney. Thus, we conclude that the third party is unavailable and that his alleged statement is “supported by independent proof indicating that it is trustworthy and reliable” and thus that it is a statement against penal interest … . Furthermore, the statement is “clearly exculpatory of the defendant” … . We therefore conclude that defendant met his burden of establishing, by a preponderance of the evidence … , that the third party’s statement against penal interest was not available at the time of defendant’s trial and “is of such a character as to create a probability that had such evidence been received at the trial the verdict would have been more favorable to the defendant” … . People v Mcfarland, 2017 NY Slip Op 02194, 4th Dept 3-24-17

 

CRIMINAL LAW (DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO VACATE HIS CONVICTION, BASED UPON NEWLY DISCOVERED EVIDENCE IN THE FORM OF A DECLARATION AGAINST INTEREST, SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED)/EVIDENCE (DECLARATION AGAINST INTEREST, DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO VACATE HIS CONVICTION, BASED UPON NEWLY DISCOVERED EVIDENCE IN THE FORM OF A DECLARATION AGAINST INTEREST, SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED)/CONVICTION, MOTION TO VACATE (DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO VACATE HIS CONVICTION, BASED UPON NEWLY DISCOVERED EVIDENCE IN THE FORM OF A DECLARATION AGAINST INTEREST, SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED)/DECLARATION AGAINST INTEREST (DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO VACATE HIS CONVICTION, BASED UPON NEWLY DISCOVERED EVIDENCE IN THE FORM OF A DECLARATION AGAINST INTEREST, SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED)

You might also like
Questions of Fact Raised About Labor Law 240(1), 240(6) and 200 Causes of Action—Labor Law 200 Actions Are Not Limited to Construction Work (Question of Fact About Unsafe Work Site Will Support Labor Law 200 Cause of Action)
COUNTY COURT PROPERLY GRANTED THE PEOPLE’S REQUEST TO PREVENT REMOVAL OF DEFENDANT’S CASE TO FAMILY COURT UNDER THE “RAISE THE AGE ACT;” THERE WAS A COMPREHENSIVE DISSENT (FOURTH DEPT).
DEFENDANT’S MANSLAUGHTER CONVICTION REVERSED AS AGAINST THE WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE, TWO-JUSTICE DISSENT (FOURTH DEPT).
THE MOTION COURT ABUSED ITS DISCRETION BY DEEMING PLAINTIFF’S STATEMENT OF MATERIAL FACTS ADMITTED BECAUSE DEFENDANTS DID NOT SUBMIT A COUNTER STATEMENT OF UNDISPUTED FACTS (FOURTH DEPT). ​
Preliminary Injunction Prohibiting the Levying of Deficit Assessments by the Workers’ Compensation Board Properly Granted
Possession of Modest Amount of Drugs Is Not Sufficient to Make Out a Prima Facie Case of an Intent to Sell
Restaurant Chair Collapsed: No Question of Fact About Constructive Notice of Condition of the Chair/Res Ipsa Loquitur Did Not Apply
AN AMENDED STIPULATED ORDER CONCERNING THE WIFE’S INTEREST IN THE HUSBAND’S LIFE INSURANCE AND 401k IN THE CONTEXT OF AN ONGOING DIVORCE ACTION, ISSUED AFTER THE HUSBAND’S DEATH, WAS WITHOUT EFFECT EVEN THOUGH THE ORGINAL STIPULATED ORDER WAS ISSUED ONE DAY BEFORE THE HUSBAND’S DEATH; THE DIVORCE ACTION ABATED UPON THE HUSBAND’S DEATH (FOURTH DEPT).

Categories

Sign Up for the Mailing List to Be Notified When the Site Is Updated.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Copyright © 2026 New York Appellate Digest, Inc.
Site by CurlyHost | Privacy Policy

IN THIS DRUG OFFENSE TRIAL, COURT SHOULD NOT HAVE ALLOWED IMPEACHMENT OF DEFENDANT... BOTH THE GRAND JURY AND THE TRIAL JURY SHOULD HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED ON THE DEFENSE...