People v Ballard

People v Ballard 2010 NY Slip Op 00904 [70 AD3d 451] February 9, 2010 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Curtis Ballard, Appellant.

—[*1] Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Richard M. Greenberg of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Dana Poole of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Richard Carruthers, J.), rendered March 31, 2008, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of four years, unanimously reversed, on the law, and the matter remanded for a new trial.

As the People concede, defendant is entitled to a new trial because, in a proceeding pursuant to Batson v Kentucky (476 US 79 [1986]), the prosecutor failed to provide any race-neutral explanation for her peremptory challenge to one of the venirepersons at issue.

In view of this disposition, we see no reason to reach any of defendant's other claims, except that we find the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence. Concur—Tom, J.P., Andrias, Friedman, Nardelli and Catterson, JJ.