People v. James

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (John Stackhouse, J.), rendered November 14, 1994, convicting defendant, after jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him to a term of 7 to 21 years, unanimously reversed, on the law, and the matter remanded for a new trial.

*316The trial court erred in excluding defendant’s eight-year-old son and a friend from the courtroom during summations and the charge to the jury. The prosecutor had objected to the child’s presence on the ground that it was "a ploy to tug on the jurors’ sympathy”. The court responded:…