New York University Review of Law and Social Change
1990/1991
Challenging the Death Penalty: A Colloquium
Part Two
INEVITABLE ERROR: WRONGFUL NEW YORK STATE HOMICIDE CONVICTIONS, 1965-1988
by Marty I. Rosenbaum

Excerpt

José Carrasquillo was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in New York County on December 17, 1986. The prosecution charged that Carrasquillo had inflicted a fatal blow upon the victim, who was apparently shoplifting from the boutique where the defendant worked. The victim died two days after the attack. The Appellate Division reversed the conviction on April 21, 1988, and ordered the indictment dismissed. The court held that the evidence was insufficient to establish that Carrasquillo, rather than his accomplice, had struck the fatal blow.1

Footnote

1. People v. Carrasquillo, 136 A.D.2d 297, 527 N.Y.S.2d 781 (1st Dep’t), appeal denied, 72 N.Y.2d 1044, 531 N.E.2d 663 (1988).