In the instant case, during a 2006 murder trial, the defense counsel asked Acting Supreme Court Justice Robert Collini in Brooklyn to charge his client with lesser-included offenses of first – and second-degree manslaughter. However, the defendant, Colville, objected and Collini found that the decision was for the defendant to take and did not rest with the defense counsel.
However, the New York Court of Appeals has overturned the murder conviction and found that Collinni had erred. Writing for the majority, Judge Susan Read observed, “By deferring to (Colville), the judge denied him the expert judgment of counsel to which the Sixth Amendment entitles him.”
The facts of the case involved the defendant Colville cutting his roommate Carl Jones with a kitchen knife and stabbing and killing Jones's friend Gregory Gardner, in 2004. Colville claimed that Gardner had hit him in the head and that he was acting in self-defense when he grabbed the kitchen knife. Colville was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree assault.
However, during the trial, Colville's attorney, Philip Katowitz asked the judge to include the lesser-included offenses of first- and second-degree manslaughter. Though the judge initially agreed to do so, Colville objected to the inclusion of further offenses, and the judge told the defense counsel “we can't do any more than we have done.” Subsequently, the defense counsel withdrew the request to include the lesser-included offenses.
While objecting to the inclusion of charges of manslaughter, Colville did not offer any further explanation than “if the jury feels that I intentionally caused the death of Mr. Gardner, there is nothing I can do about it.” He was convicted and sentenced to 22 years to life.
In 2010, the Appellate Division, Second Department, unanimously upheld the conviction.
However, the appellate court has held that the decision of the trial judge caused harm as both he and the prosecution had acknowledged that the evidence supported a charge of manslaughter.
Judge Read wrote, “The jurors decided that (Colville), a man in his very early forties with no prior criminal record, did not intend to inflict physical injury on Jones, and might well have found (Colville) guilty of manslaughter rather than murder when he killed Gardner.”
Judges Eugene Pigott, Robert Smith and Theodore Jones dissented from the majority opinion.
In dissent, Judge Jones observed, “Because a defendant has the most to lose in a criminal proceeding ... reason dictates that the defendant shall control his/her own destiny and have the ultimate authority regarding choices he/she makes (even if against the advice of counsel).”
The case is the People v. Delroy Colville, New York State Court of Appeals, No. 161.
