A convicted murderer whose co-defendant was granted a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel is not entitled to a new trial himself because of “spillover prejudice,” a Brooklyn Supreme Court justice has ruled.
Although acknowledging that the attorney for Fitzroy McNeill was “very influential” in the strategic decisions found to be ineffective in his co-defendant’s case, Acting Justice Joseph Kevin McKay, in People v. McNeill, 8802-92, concluded that any spillover prejudice did not constitute a violation of his Sixth Amendment rights, and that McNeill had failed to prove ineffective assistance by his own counsel.
