Court Opinion

ID: 9737060
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:14:28.000625+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:14.078378
License: Public Domain

G.B. Smith, J.
(dissenting). Because defendant did not waive or forfeit his right to a defense based upon the statute of limitations, I dissent and would vacate defendant’s conviction.
Defendant was indicted for depraved indifference murder in violation of Penal Law § 125.25 (2). He was found not guilty of that charge, however, and was convicted on the charge of criminally negligent homicide (Penal Law § 125.10). Defendant was sentenced to U/s to 4 years in prison and he has served that sentence. The evidence was that in 1978, defendant, then 17 years old, pushed a boy 12 years old into water and cement in an area where defendant and some other youths had been swimming. The charges were not brought until 21 years later when the defendant’s brother, angered that defendant was having an affair with the brother’s wife, went to the police and an investigation resulted.
Defendant was convicted not of depraved indifference murder, but of criminally negligent homicide. Prior to trial, defendant, acting on the basis of an indication from the trial court that it would not consider a charge on a lesser included offense unless the defendant moved for it prior to trial, moved for a charge on the lesser included offenses of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. The People opposed the motion as premature. The court ruled that it would base the decision on the trial evidence. Following the trial, the defendant requested a charge on criminally negligent homicide as a lesser included offense of depraved indifference murder. Defendant did not request a charge on the lesser included offense of manslaughter in the second degree.1 The trial judge requested that the defendant waive the statute of limitations for criminally negligent homi*278cide. The defendant refused to do so but asserted that he was entitled to the charge. The court gave the charge as a lesser included offense and ruled that by requesting the charge, defendant waived his right to object to a conviction and sentence. Following trial, defendant moved pursuant to CPL 330.30 and 30.10 to set aside the conviction of criminally negligent homicide on the ground that it violated the statute of limitations. Defendant again asserted that he did not waive the statute of limitations. The trial court denied the motion.
On this appeal the prosecution contends that when the defendant requested the charge of criminally negligent homicide, he waived the defense of the statute of limitations. Defendant, however, specifically refused to waive the statute of limitations. Thus, no waiver with respect to the statute of limitations occurred. Moreover, there was no forfeiture, that is, a loss of a statutory right to assert the bar of the statute of limitations, merely by a request to charge a lesser included offense.2
If there was a reasonable view of the evidence that defendant committed the lesser crime, he was entitled to the instruction on criminally negligent homicide. CPL 300.50 (2) states that if the defendant requests a charge on a lesser included offense and if there is a reasonable view of the evidence that the defendant committed the lesser included offense but did not commit the greater offense, the court “must” give that charge. By contrast, a defendant who objects to the lesser included charge must so state before it is given or he or she waives the right to object to it being given (CPL 300.50 [1]). In People v Richardson (88 NY2d 1049 [1996]) and People v Ford (62 NY2d 275 [1984]), *279both cited by the majority for the proposition that defendant’s conviction and sentence can stand because he has waived the statute of limitations in this case, the defendants argued that the charge on the lesser included offense should not have been given, but failed to object to the charge at trial. Because each defendant acquiesced in the charge when it was given, he waived objection to the charge and could not be heard to complain about his conviction of the lesser offense. Those cases do not address the issue currently before us, namely the effect of the statute of limitations on the conviction of and sentence upon the lesser included charge. Moreover, other cases cited by the majority (People v Kohut, 30 NY2d 183 [1972]; People v Blake, 193 NY 616 [1908], affg 121 App Div 613 [1st Dept 1907]; People v Dickson, 133 AD2d 492 [3d Dept 1987]) all stand for the proposition that a defendant waives the statute of limitations if he does not raise it at an appropriate time, an issue not before us.
It is clear that the evidence before the grand jury was sufficient to indict defendant for depraved indifference murder. At the same time, defendant was entitled to argue that the evidence was not sufficient to convict him of that offense but only of a lesser included offense, criminally negligent homicide. Once the defendant was convicted only of criminally negligent homicide, the statute of limitations precluded that conviction and the sentence imposed.
I agree with the majority that there is no validity to the defendant’s contention that his wife could not testify against him because of the marital privilege. Defendant’s confession to his wife was made during the course of his abuse of and threats to his wife. Therefore, the marital privilege did not apply.
Accordingly, I would reverse the conviction of the defendant.
Chief Judge Kaye and Judges Ciparick, Rosenblatt and Read concur with Judge Graffeo; Judge G.B. Smith dissents and votes to reverse in a separate opinion.
Order affirmed.

. Neither the trial court nor the People noted or argued that the lesser included offense to depraved indifference murder (Penal Law § 125.25 [2]) was manslaughter in the second degree (Penal Law § 125.15 [1]) rather than criminally negligent homicide (Penal Law § 125.10). Penal Law § 125.25 (2) states, “A person is guilty of murder in the second degree when: ... 2. Under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, he recklessly *278engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby causes the death of another person.” Penal Law § 125.15 (1), a lesser included offense of depraved indifference murder, states, “A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when: 1. He recklessly causes the death of another person.” Penal Law § 125.10, a lesser included offense of manslaughter, second degree, states, “A person is guilty of criminally negligent homicide when, with criminal negligence, he causes the death of another person.”

. Arguably, the trial court should have refused to give the charge on criminally negligent homicide without first giving a charge on manslaughter in the second degree. The court charged the jury that for it to convict defendant of murder in the second degree, the People had to prove that defendant engaged in reckless conduct indicating a depraved indifference to human life. A charge on the lesser included offense of manslaughter in the second degree would require the People to prove that defendant recklessly caused the death of another person. If the jury found the defendant not guilty of both murder in the second degree and manslaughter in the second degree, the charge of criminally negligent homicide would have been appropriate.