Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2016

People v. Butler

People v. Butler
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York · Decided June 9, 2016 · Mazzarelli, Acosta, Saxe, Kapnick, Kahn
140 A.D.3d 472; 31 N.Y.S.3d 877
People v. Butler

Cases that cite this one

5 later published cases cite this decision.

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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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