Brooklyn Appellate Court orders new trial for murder defendant
In Brooklyn, the Appellate Division, 2nd Department, ruled that prosecutors engaged in misconduct sufficient to grant a convicted murder defendant a new trial.
Brooklyn resident Antoine “Live” Singleton and Naim Muhammad of Queens were convicted in 2009 of the murder of two Queens men and the attempted murder of two others. Singleton and Muhammad were tried together, despite a petition by Singleton’s attorney to sever the trials.
When trials are jointly prosecuted, a 1987 United States Supreme Court decision outlines what can and cannot be alluded to about either co-defendant by the other during trial. For example, the Constitution guarantees a defendant the right to confront any witness against him. If one defendant gives a confession implicating his co-defendant, such a confession cannot be admitted into evidence. The rationale is that the defendants are on trial together as one unit and are therefore unable to confront the other on the witness stand as they would if trials were separate.
During the trial, Queens prosecutor Patrick O’Connor alluded that Muhammad indirectly conveyed that Singelton was involved in the commission of the crimes. The trial court judge ordered any mention of Singleton as the accomplice named by Muhammad was to be redacted from the trial record. Despite this measure by the trial court, O’Connor, during his summation, told to jury that the redacted name was indeed Singleton.