A Win for Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A win for judicial process was marked on July 6, 2023, with the unanimous reversal of the conviction of Gregory Ramos. In People v Gregory Ramos, the weight of the evidence lay against the testimony of a jailhouse informant that the court determined was “completely at odds” with other evidence the prosecutors submitted.

“The Appellate Division rectified a miscarriage of justice in its decision,” Hutchison said of the decision.

The appeal was argued before Erie County Supreme Court’s Appellate Division by Susan Hutchison of the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, for the defendant. Primary among her arguments was that the jailhouse informant’s testimony was not in itself enough to definitively connect Mr. Ramos to the alleged offense.

The court agreed with Ms. Hutchison’s argument that the People’s video evidence was “completely at odds” with the version of events offered by a jailhouse informant. Absent any additional evidence, “there is no evidence from which to reasonably infer that defendant shared the codefendant’s intent,” the Appellate Division held.

The Appellate Division ultimately determined that the jailhouse informant’s testimony was incredible and that it was “too specific to permit the conclusion that any inconsistency between it and the video evidence is the innocuous result of an imprecise account.”

Jailhouse informants are one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. One in five DNA-based exonerations involved a jailhouse informant, according to the Innocence Project.[1] The decision in People v Gregory Ramos represents the vigorous approach of Legal Aid, which strives to preserve judicial integrity, challenge prosecutorial overreach, and lessen the chances of the wrongful conviction of citizens.

Because the indictment was dismissed as against the weight of the evidence, the District Attorney’s Office may not appeal the decision to the New York Court of Appeals (CPL § 450.90 [2]).

[1] The Innocence Project, Unregulated jailhouse informant testimony deeply harms our justice system, https://innocenceproject.org/news/informing-injustice-the-disturbing-use-of-jailhouse-informants/ (March 6, 2019). See also Pamela Colloff, How This Con Man’s Wild Testimony Sent Dozens to Jail, and 4 to Death Row, NY Times Magazine (Dec. 4, 2019).

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