People v. Butler

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York

People v. Butler

140 A.D.3d 472, 31 N.Y.S.3d 877

CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York

DecidedJune 9, 2016

Docket1413 3920/08

StatusPublished

Cited by6 cases

This text of 140 A.D.3d 472 (People v. Butler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

People v. Butler, 140 A.D.3d 472, 31 N.Y.S.3d 877 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2016).

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Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Ralph Fabrizio, J.), rendered March 8, 2012, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree, and sentencing him to a term of 22 years, unanimously affirmed.

The record does not establish that counsel improperly delegated to her client the decision to agree to a joint trial with the codefendant. Instead, the record supports the conclusion that in agreeing to a joint trial, along with redactions of portions of defendant’s statement that arguably incriminated the codefendant, counsel weighed defendant’s desire for a joint trial, but ultimately accepted her client’s choice on the basis of her own professional judgment as well (see People v Gottsche, *473 118 AD3d 1303, 1303-1305 [4th Dept 2014], lv denied 24 NY3d 1084 [2014]). This is not a case like People v Colville (20 NY3d 20 [2012]), or People v Lee (120 AD3d 1137 [2014]), where the court made a ruling by choosing the defendant’s position over the attorney’s contrary position on a matter within the purview of counsel. In any event, harmless error analysis applies (see Colville, 20 NY3d at 32-33), and we find that any error in this regard was harmless.

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.

Concur— Mazzarelli, J.P., Acosta, Saxe, Kapnick and Kahn, JJ.

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Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Ralph Fabrizio, J.), rendered March 8, 2012, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree, and sentencing him to a term of 22 years, unanimously affirmed.

The record does not establish that counsel improperly delegated to her client the decision to agree to a joint trial with the codefendant. Instead, the record supports the conclusion that in agreeing to a joint trial, along with redactions of portions of defendant’s statement that arguably incriminated the codefendant, counsel weighed defendant’s desire for a joint trial, but ultimately accepted her client’s choice on the basis of her own professional judgment as well (see People v Gottsche, *473 118 AD3d 1303, 1303-1305 [4th Dept 2014], lv denied 24 NY3d 1084 [2014]). This is not a case like People v Colville (20 NY3d 20 [2012]), or People v Lee (120 AD3d 1137 [2014]), where the court made a ruling by choosing the defendant’s position over the attorney’s contrary position on a matter within the purview of counsel. In any event, harmless error analysis applies (see Colville, 20 NY3d at 32-33), and we find that any error in this regard was harmless.

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.

Concur— Mazzarelli, J.P., Acosta, Saxe, Kapnick and Kahn, JJ.

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Bluebook (online)

140 A.D.3d 472, 31 N.Y.S.3d 877, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-butler-nyappdiv-2016.

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