Case ID: ad2d_17/html/0971-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Kleinfeld, J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Victor George Langford, Appellant.
   Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Suffolk County, rendered July 24, 1961 after a jury trial, convicting him of murder in the second degree, and imposing sentence. Judgment affirmed. No opinion. Beldoek, P. J., Ughetta, Hill and Rabin, JJ., concur;

Kleinfeld, J.,

dissents and votes to reverse the judgment and to grant a new trial, with the following memorandum: Defendant was indicted for second degree murder. The prosecutor in his summation to the jury stated: “This isn’t a murder in the second degree, members of the jury. This in my opinion — and I have had a lot of experience with homicides — this man should be tried and should be on trial at the present time for murder in the first degree.” In my opinion, such statement having been so forcefully and unequivocally made, its prejudicial effect could not be removed by the court’s subsequent instructions to the jury to draw no inference from the statement and not to consider it as having any bearing upon defendant’s guilt.