People v. Brown
The People of the State of New York v. Carl Albert Brown
Opinion of the Court
Text extracted by OCR from a scanned original; check the original for exact wording.
Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Dutchess County, rendered June 10, 1970, convicting him of rape in the third degree, after a nonjury trial, and imposing sentence. Judgment reversed, on the law, and new trial ordered. Defendant contends that his waiver of trial by jury was ineffective because it was oral. Section 2 of article I of the Constitution of the State of Hew York provides: “ A jury trial may be waived by the defendant in all criminal cases, except those in which the crime charged may be punishable by death, by a written instrument signed by the defendant in person in open court before and with the approval of a judge or justice of a court having jurisdiction to try the offense.” The constitutional requirement of a written waiver was not complied with; therefore, no waiver occurred (People v. Matthews, 35 A D 2d 1049). Munder, Acting P. J., Latham, Shapiro, Christ and Benjamin, JJ., concur.
How later courts describe this case
Explanatory parentheticals written by citing courts — 3 in all; the most informative distinct ones are shown.
-
(failure to obtain defendant’s personal waiver of right to jury trial by “written instrument” is per se reversible error)
Cited by 7 cases
View all citing references →Relies on it most ⓘ
Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.