Court Opinion

ID: 2752426
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2014-11-18 14:04:55.244821+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:16:39.393339
License: Public Domain

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This memorandum is uncorrected and subject to revision before
publication in the New York Reports.
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No. 194
The People &c.,
            Respondent,
        v.
Derrick 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

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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 U.S. 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

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