People v. Green

Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Westchester County (Martin, J.), rendered January 18,1980, convicting him of robbery in the first degree and grand larceny in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. Judgment reversed, on the law, and new trial ordered. The sole issue at trial was identification and was dependent upon the testimony of a single witness. In summation, the prosecutor argued that there was no motivation for that witness to lie since “[h]e’s a black man. There is nothing racial that could suggest to you that he’s picking out Lenwood…