The New Jersey Supreme Court reviewed a serial collateral attack on the defendant’s homicide convictions. He claimed his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to utilize certain exculpatory evidence to further a third-party-guilt defense. The case was a murder robbery where two “buyers” arranged a sale of heroin from two sellers, but the buyers intended … Read more
In State v. Gideon, a jury convicted the defendant of aggravated manslaughter and related charges. Five years later, the defendant filed a PCR petition and alleged trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and call his girlfriend and mother as alibi witnesses. The PCR court dismissed the petition. Relying in large part on State … Read more
In State v. Steingraber, the State appealed the lower court’s grant of PCR relief. The lower court ruled that the sentencing court’s imposition of parole supervision for life (PSL)–in the absence of a motion by the prosecutor as required under the PSL statute–constituted an illegal sentence. The Appellate Division reversed, holding that the defendant’s sentence … Read more
In State v. Aburoumi, which involved a collateral attack on a criminal conviction, the Appellate Division ruled that an evidentiary hearing was needed where the defendant claimed he was not informed of the immigration consequences of his plea-into-PTI plea bargain, though the law was clear that such a plea would lead to removal.