Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

55 N.Y.2d 144

People v. Graham

New York Court of Appeals

Decided February 18, 1982

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1982-02-18

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1982-02-18

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently June 2026

5 state decisions

8019821990200020102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Wachtler, J.

¶1(concurring). I agree that a literal reading of the two statutes requires the court to submit to a *153jury any question as to whether defendant’s confession was obtained in violation of his rights under Miranda v Arizona (384 US 436). I am troubled, however, by the fact that there does not appear to be any rational explanation for this requirement. The Supreme Court has never held that this is required under the Mirandadecision. Nor is it mandated by our State Constitution, which only guarantees the defendant a right to a jury trial concerning his confession when he contends that it was involuntary in the traditional sense that he was coerced into making it. It appears that in codifying the procedure for truly involuntary confessions the Legislature inadvertently broadened it to include statements said to be “involuntarily made within the meaning of section 60.45” which includes Mirandaissues. Nevertheless, if this is inadvertence, it can only be corrected by rewriting the statute (CPL 710.70, subd 3) and that is a matter solely within the Legislature’s control.

¶2Chief Judge Cooke and Judge Meyer concur with Judge Fuchsberg; Judge Wachtler concurs in a separate opinion in which Judges Jasen and Gabrielli concur; Judge Jones taking no part.

¶3Order affirmed.

/55/ny2d/144 · .json · Public domain