Living up to its reputation as the most criminal-friendly of courts, the Manhattan Appellate Division freed a woman who tried to smuggle a knife to her gang member boyfriend in the Tombs.
Justices Karla Moskowitz, Helen Freedman and Sallie Manzanet-Daniels overturned Jennifer Bartholomew’s conviction even though she admitted carrying a shoe box, containing a pair of sneakers, containing the blade.
She told a preposterous story about having just bought the sneakers, having never opened the box, and having been stunned that they came packed with the knife. The jury laughed Bartholomew out of court, but the three appeals judges tossed the case because the prosecutor had mentioned her boyfriend’s gang affiliation on cross-examination.
Dissenting judges David Friedman and Richard Andrias rightly ridiculed their colleagues, writing that Bartholomew “presented a story that would be credible only to the sort of person who could be persuaded to buy the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately, the majority, by fastening on rulings that were at most insignificant trial errors (if they were errors at all) buys the bridge that the jury did not.”
Exactly.
They’ll free anyone
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