People v. Shabazz

The trial court and the Appellate Division (89 AD3d 529 [1st Dept 2011]) concluded that defendants failed to establish the female codefendant’s unavailability or confirm the reliability of her statement with competent independent evidence. These are the first and fourth elements of the declaration against penal interest exception (People v Settles, 46 NY2d 154, 167 [1978]). The majority memorandum omits any analysis concerning defendants’ failure to meet the first element of that test, which, in my view, is dispositive. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.

Originally, the female codefendant was…