THE PEOPLE &C., RESPONDENT, v. ANDRE ALEXANDER, APPELLANT.
94 N.Y.2d 382 (1999).
December 21, 1999
3 No. 205
(99 NY Int. 0186)
Decided December 21, 1999
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99 N.Y. Int. 0186.
December 21, 1999
(99 NY Int. 0186)
Decided December 21, 1999
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This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication
in the New York Reports.
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ROSENBLATT, J.:
In the case before us the prosecutor, in summation,urged the jury to
give added credit to a witness' identification of defendant because
the witness and the defendant were both African-American. We hold that
under the circumstances presented the summation was improper. Because
the error was not harmless, we reverse defendant's conviction and
order a new trial.
At approximately 2:30 A.M. on January 25, 1997, a crowd of individuals
was involved in an altercation on a public street in Albany. At the
time, Andrew Washington, an off-duty employee of the Rennselaer County
Sheriff's Office, was driving home from Troy, where he had consumed a
few beers with friends. Washington testified that as he drove toward
the scene he saw a crowd of 20 or 30 people chasing someone, whom they
cornered and began beating. Stopping his car several yards from the
fight, Washington attempted to disperse the crowd by honking his horn.
He then heard a gunshot. After ducking, he immediately looked up in
the direction of the report and saw a young African-American male
holding a handgun. The crowd scattered, and Washington sped through
the intersection, proceeding to the nearest police station where he
gave a statement. Because everyone had left the scene, the police
drove him to the nightclub where the fight supposedly began.
Washington there identified defendant as the person who fired the gun.
SNIPPETS:
99 N.Y. Int.
In the case before us the prosecutor, in summation,urged the jury to give added credit to a
We hold that under the circumstances presented the summation was improper.
Because the error was not harmless, we reverse defendant's conviction and order a new trial.
At the time, Andrew Washington, an off-duty employee of the Rennselaer County Sheriff's
Washington testified that as he drove toward the scene he saw a crowd of 20 or 30 people
Stopping his car several yards from the fight, Washington attempted to disperse the crowd by
The crowd scattered, and Washington sped through the intersection, proceeding to the nearest
Washington there identified defendant as the person who fired the gun.
Asserting a trial defense of misidentification, defendant produced three witnesses who
Washington's in-court identification was the People's only direct evidence linking defendant
On summation, the court permitted the Assistant District Attorney to argue to the jury that
ADA: Intraracial identification, I submit to you inherently more intraracial, white on white,
The Appellate Division affirmed, with one Justice dissenting.
The People assert that, based on psychological writings describing the purported weaknesses
In that setting, some appellate courts have sustained the preclusion of this evidence in the
Chief Judge Kaye and Judges Bellacosa, Smith, Levine, Ciparick and Wesley concur.
* See, e.g., Chance & Goldstein, The Other Race Effect and Eyewitness Identification, in
Applied Social Psychol 972; Lindsay, Wells & Rumpel, Can People Detect
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