Title: People v Hill

State: new-york

Issuer: New York Appellate Court

Document:

People v Hill

2014 NY Slip Op 07925

Decided on November 18, 2014

Court of Appeals

Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.

This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.


Decided on November 18, 2014

No. 194 

[*1]The People & c., Respondent,
vDerrick Hill, Appellant.


Jonathan Garelick, for appellant.
Philip Morrow, for respondent.


MEMORANDUM:
The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed and a new trial ordered.
Absent "unusual circumstances," evidence of a defendant's silence at the time of arrest is generally inadmissible under common-law evidentiary principles (People v Conyers , 52 NY2d 454, 459 [1981]). And the use for impeachment purposes of a defendant's silence after receiving Miranda  warnings has been deemed impermissible as a matter of due process (see Doyle v Ohio , 426 US 610, 619 [1976]). Under the circumstances presented, we conclude that defendant did not open the door to evidence of his post-Miranda  silence and, therefore, Supreme Court erred in permitting its introduction at trial. Nor can the error be viewed as harmless in this case.
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Order reversed and a new trial ordered, in a memorandum. Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Graffeo, Read, Smith, Pigott and Rivera concur. Judge Abdus-Salaam took no part.
Decided November 18, 2014