People v. Coyne

Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County, rendered January 12, 1978, convicting him of grand larceny in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. Judgment reversed, on the law and as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, and a new trial ordered. Defendant argues that the prosecutor’s summation exceeded the permissible bounds of fair comment and operated to deprive him of a fair trial, citing, inter alia, his comments (1) asserting (ostensibly on the issue of defendant’s credibility) that the defendant had, in the past, broken into…