People v. Graham

OPINION OF THE COURT

Fuchsberg, J.

We are called upon to decide whether the court of first instance in this case was free to refuse defendant’s request, made pursuant to CPL 60.45 and 710.70, that it submit the voluntariness of defendant’s incriminating statement to the jury when the attack on it was based solely on proof in support of a claim that the police officer to whom it was made failed to advise the defendant of her constitutional rights as required by Miranda v Arizona (384 US 436).1

The defendant, Imogene Graham, was arrested in a tavern on Manhattan’s upper West Side by a police…