People v. Sanchez

96 N.E.3d 762, 73 N.Y.S.3d 497, 31 N.Y.3d 949
Court for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors·Decided March 22, 2018·No. No. 74 SSM 26·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM.

***950The order of the Appellate Division, insofar as appealed from, should be reversed and the case remitted to the Appellate Division for consideration of the facts ( CPL 470.25[2][d] ; 470.40[2][b] ) and issues raised but not determined on appeal to that Court. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to defendant (see People v. Watts, 57 N.Y.2d 299, 301, 456 N.Y.S.2d 677, 442 N.E.2d 1188 [1982] ), the trial court properly declined to charge the jury on the justification defense because, even assuming that the jury could rationally find that defendant subjectively believed *763he had been threatened with the imminent use of deadly physical force, "the jury could not rationally conclude that his reactions were those of a reasonable [person] acting in self-defense" ( People v. Reynoso, 73 N.Y.2d 816, 818, 537 N.Y.S.2d 113, 534 N.E.2d 30 [1988] ). Further, on this record, there was no reasonable view of the evidence that defendant could not safely retreat at the time that deadly physical force was used (see Penal Law § 35.15[2][a] ; compare Matter of Y.K., 87 N.Y.2d 430, 434, 639 N.Y.S.2d 1001, 663 N.E.2d 313 [1996] ).

WILSON, J. (dissenting).

The majority acknowledges that we must view "the record in a light most favorable to the accused" ( People v. McManus , 67 N.Y.2d 541, 549, 505 N.Y.S.2d 43, 496 N.E.2d 202 [1986] ;see People v. Watts, 57 N.Y.2d 299, 301, 456 N.Y.S.2d 677, 442 N.E.2d 1188 [1982] ). Thus, when a defendant requests a justification charge, as Mr. Sanchez did here, the ***951trial court must give it "if any reasonable view of the evidence would permit the fact finder to decide that the conduct was justified" and, "[u]nder such circumstances, refusal to charge that the People must disprove the alleged justification is reversible error" ( McManus , 67 N.Y.2d at 549, 505 N.Y.S.2d 43, 496 N.E.2d 202 ). The majority accepts, at least for the purpose of its analysis, that Mr. Sanchez had a reasonable subjective belief that he was responding to a threat of deadly force, but concludes that whatever Mr. Sanchez may have believed, no reasonable person-with Mr. Sanchez's "background and experiences" ( People v. Wesley, 76 N.Y.2d 555, 559, 561 N.Y.S.2d 707, 563 N.E.2d 21 [1990] )-could have believed that Mr. Sanchez's actions were justified as self defense.

Following is the evidence most favorable to Mr. Sanchez. (True, there is contrary evidence, much of which would likely have caused a trier of fact to reject Mr. Sanchez's defense had the court given a justification charge, but that weighing of evidence is the function of the jury, not this Court.) Ask whether, were you a reasonable juror accepting the following evidence as true and disregarding all contrary evidence as false, you would nevertheless reject Mr. Sanchez's justification defense:

• Mr. Sanchez was stabbed in the abdomen in a bar, and was hospitalized for 10 days. The "word on the street" was that the attackers had not "finished the job."
• Two months after his release from the hospital, Mr. Sanchez and four friends (two men and two women) were at a restaurant in Poughkeepsie. While in the bathroom, three men beat up Mr. Sanchez while the bouncer stood by watching. Mr. Sanchez had a purple eye and a sharp pain in the location of his prior stab wound. Mr. Sanchez feared his stomach wound had been reopened, and was afraid of being stabbed again. The attackers said they would kill him if he ever came back.
• Returning to his friends, Mr. Sanchez asked one of his female friends to go open the car because he wanted to leave "real quick" so that he could get medical help.

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People v. Sanchez, 96 N.E.3d 762, 73 N.Y.S.3d 497, 31 N.Y.3d 949 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2018).

96 N.E.3d 762 (People v. Sanchez) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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