CPL §440.10—which affords a criminal defendant in New York the right to collaterally attack a conviction based on off-the-record evidence—provides a menu of options for denying such a motion on procedural grounds without reaching its merits. State courts and practitioners should be aware, however, that a court’s invocation of procedural bars will be carefully scrutinized down the road by state and federal reviewing courts, particularly in the context of ineffective assistance of counsel claims.
What might seem a quick and easy way to dispose of a motion may prompt a federal reviewing court to send a case back to state court or to conduct its own hearing on the merits years later when evidence has disappeared or become stale. This article addresses the considerations that should inform state practitioners’ arguments and trial courts’ conclusions regarding the applicability of 440.10′s procedural bars to ineffective assistance claims, and the legal perspective from which federal courts will evaluate state court reliance on these bars.
Procedural Bars
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