People v. Laws

On September 24, 1975 defendant gave a sworn statement to a member of the New York State Police detailing his involvement in the trafficking of illegal drugs with one Michael Cunningham who was then under indictment. Pursuant to a subpoena, defendant was called as a prosecution witness to testify at the Cunningham trial in January of 1976. Although the prosecution attempted to elicit testimony from him about the purchase of drugs from Cunningham in conformity with his earlier statement, defendant refused to answer certain questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege, and, among other…