DEFENDANT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO PRESENT REVERSE MOLINEUX THIRD PARTY CULPABILITY EVIDENCE, EVIDENCE THAT DEFENDANT DID NOT COMMIT OTHER UNCHARGED ROBBERIES WHICH HAD THE SAME MODUS OPERANDI AS THE CHARGED ROBBERIES, AS WELL AS AN EXCULPATORY FINGERPRINT CARD, CONVICTION REVERSED (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Acosta, reversing defendant’s conviction, determined defendant should have been allowed to present reverse Molineux evidence (evidence that defendant did not commit other robberies committed close in time to the charged robberies with a similar modus operandi) as well as a fingerprint card which would show the absence of a blemish on defendant’s palm which was described by one of the robbery victims. Defendant was denied his right to present a defense. With regard to the reverse Molineux evidence, the court wrote:

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Given defendant’s right to use reverse Molineux evidence, defense counsel sought to introduce two categories of evidence. First, counsel wanted to introduce the surveillance videos from the three robberies for which defendant was not on trial to show that he was not depicted in them: the jury was entitled to make its own assessment that the person sitting before them in the courtroom did not match the person shown in the three videos. There was no evidentiary rule that would have excluded the surveillance videos.

Second, defense counsel sought to introduce evidence that three witnesses from uncharged robberies had viewed lineups in which defendant participated, but had not identified him as the man who had robbed them. Had defense counsel presented the failure-to-identify testimony directly through each eyewitness, no evidentiary bar could have been raised: each eyewitness would have been qualified to say that he or she had viewed defendant in a lineup and that defendant was not the man who had robbed him or her. Had defense counsel been unable to find each of the eyewitnesses, or been otherwise unavailable to testify, and had instead sought only to introduce one or more of the failures to identify through the detective who had supervised the lineup, the detective’s testimony would have been hearsay. Counsel could have overcome the hearsay objection by showing that the identifications were admissible on constitutional grounds because they were reliable … . People v Montgomery, 2018 NY Slip Op 00351, First Dept 1-18-18

CRIMINAL LAW (EVIDENCE, DEFENDANT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO PRESENT REVERSE MOLINEUX THIRD PARTY CULPABILITY EVIDENCE, EVIDENCE THAT DEFENDANT DID NOT COMMIT OTHER UNCHARGED ROBBERIES WHICH HAD THE SAME MODUS OPERANDI AS THE CHARGED ROBBERIES, AS WELL AS AN EXCULPATORY FINGERPRINT CARD, CONVICTION REVERSED (FIRST DEPT))/EVIDENCE (CRIMINAL LAW, DEFENDANT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO PRESENT REVERSE MOLINEUX THIRD PARTY CULPABILITY EVIDENCE, EVIDENCE THAT DEFENDANT DID NOT COMMIT OTHER UNCHARGED ROBBERIES WHICH HAD THE SAME MODUS OPERANDI AS THE CHARGED ROBBERIES, AS WELL AS AN EXCULPATORY FINGERPRINT CARD, CONVICTION REVERSED (FIRST DEPT))/MOLINEUX (CRIMINAL LAW, EVIDENCE, DEFENDANT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO PRESENT REVERSE MOLINEUX THIRD PARTY CULPABILITY EVIDENCE, EVIDENCE THAT DEFENDANT DID NOT COMMIT OTHER UNCHARGED ROBBERIES WHICH HAD THE SAME MODUS OPERANDI AS THE CHARGED ROBBERIES, AS WELL AS AN EXCULPATORY FINGERPRINT CARD, CONVICTION REVERSED (FIRST DEPT))/REVERSE MOLINEUX (CRIMINAL LAW, EVIDENCE, DEFENDANT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO PRESENT REVERSE MOLINEUX THIRD PARTY CULPABILITY EVIDENCE, EVIDENCE THAT DEFENDANT DID NOT COMMIT OTHER UNCHARGED ROBBERIES WHICH HAD THE SAME MODUS OPERANDI AS THE CHARGED ROBBERIES, AS WELL AS AN EXCULPATORY FINGERPRINT CARD, CONVICTION REVERSED (FIRST DEPT))/THIRD PARTY CULPABILITY (CRIMINAL LAW, EVIDENCE,  DEFENDANT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO PRESENT REVERSE MOLINEUX THIRD PARTY CULPABILITY EVIDENCE, EVIDENCE THAT DEFENDANT DID NOT COMMIT OTHER UNCHARGED ROBBERIES WHICH HAD THE SAME MODUS OPERANDI AS THE CHARGED ROBBERIES, AS WELL AS AN EXCULPATORY FINGERPRINT CARD, CONVICTION REVERSED (FIRST DEPT))/CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (CRIMINAL LAW, RIGHT TO PRESENT A DEFENSE, DEFENDANT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO PRESENT REVERSE MOLINEUX THIRD PARTY CULPABILITY EVIDENCE, EVIDENCE THAT DEFENDANT DID NOT COMMIT OTHER UNCHARGED ROBBERIES WHICH HAD THE SAME MODUS OPERANDI AS THE CHARGED ROBBERIES, AS WELL AS AN EXCULPATORY FINGERPRINT CARD, CONVICTION REVERSED (FIRST DEPT))/DEFENSE, RIGHT TO PRESENT (CRIMINAL LAW, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, DEFENDANT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO PRESENT REVERSE MOLINEUX THIRD PARTY CULPABILITY EVIDENCE, EVIDENCE THAT DEFENDANT DID NOT COMMIT OTHER UNCHARGED ROBBERIES WHICH HAD THE SAME MODUS OPERANDI AS THE CHARGED ROBBERIES, AS WELL AS AN EXCULPATORY FINGERPRINT CARD, CONVICTION REVERSED (FIRST DEPT))