People v. Griffin

Judgment of the Supreme Court, Bronx County (Ivan Warner, J.), rendered June 21, 1985, convicting defendant, after jury trial, of murder in the second degree and sentencing him to a term of from 18 years to life imprisonment, is unanimously reversed, on the law, and the matter remanded to the Supreme Court for a new trial.

In this close case, the evidence against defendant was wholly circumstantial. It consisted of proof of his presence at or near the scene of the crime at the time of its commission, together with inconsistent exculpatory statements made by him. None of these statements made…