Court Opinion

ID: 5489588
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-01-10 02:24:37.840087+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:33:44.642990
License: Public Domain

OPINION OF THE COURT
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.
Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Graffeo, Read, Smith, Pigott and Rivera concur; Judge Abdus-Salaam taking no part.
Order reversed and a new trial ordered, in a memorandum.