Brooklyn defendant denied habeas petition
A man’s request to be released from prison, on the grounds that his conviction was invalid due to improper jury instructions and an error in the sentencing charge, was denied by Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Roslynn Mauskopf.
Jamel Albritton was accused of fatally shooting Luther Bryant and, with the use of a fake name and false identification, fleeing to California after the crime. Albritton was arrested upon his return to New York five weeks later.
During his 2005 trial, Albritton asserted a claim of self-defense for the murder, and a Brooklyn Supreme Court jury agreed. Albritton was acquitted of second-degree murder but was found guilty of criminal possession of a weapon and possessing false identification.
Albritton asserted in his subsequent federal suit that the lower trial jury should have been allowed to apply the self-defense justification to the charges of gun possession and false IDs as well as the murder charges. Albritton should have raised this issue during the trial phase, Mauskopf said in the opinion of Brooklyn’s federal court.