WAIVER OF APPEAL INVALID (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, over a two-justice dissent, determined defendant’s waiver of the right to appeal was insufficient:
We agree with defendant that his waiver of the right to appeal was not valid because, during the plea colloquy, County Court “conflated the appeal waiver with the rights automatically waived by the guilty plea” … . The court indicated that the waiver of the right to appeal was “[o]ne other condition,” and that statement “was immediately preceded by a colloquy concerning the rights automatically forfeited by a guilty plea”… . In addition, the court further muddied the distinction by indicating that the waiver of the right to appeal “is separate and part [sic] from your plea of guilty,” rather than indicating that it was a condition of the guilty plea but separate from the rights that defendant automatically forfeited by the plea … . Consequently, ” the record fails to establish that defendant understood that the right to appeal is separate and distinct from those rights automatically forfeited upon a plea of guilty’ “… . People v Smith, 2017 NY Slip Op 08949, Fourth Dept 12-22-17
CRIMINAL LAW (WAIVER OF APPEAL INVALID (FOURTH DEPT))/APPEALS (CRIMINAL LAW, WAIVER OF APPEAL INVALID (FOURTH DEPT))