People v. Rafkind

Judgments of the County Court of Kings county, convicting defendants of robbery in the first degree, and orders denying motion to set aside the verdicts, reversed on the law and new trial granted. Appellants, together with their accomplices, Antonelli and Sacks, were indicted jointly for robbery. During the trial the accomplices pleaded guilty to a lesser crime and the trial was discontinued as to them. Neither the prosecution nor appellants called the accomplices as witnesses. The court by its charge and refusal to charge (at fols. 556 to 558; 585 to 586) told the jury, in effect, that by…