CPL 470.15(1) provides that intermediate appellate courts “may consider and determine any question of law or issue of fact involving error or defect in the criminal court proceedings which may have adversely affected the appellant.” The Court of Appeals has the same restriction. See CPL 470.35(1). The interpretation of these provisions has important implications for the administration of the state’s appellate courts, and is currently the subject of dispute.
The Story Begins
People v. LaFontaine, 92 N.Y.2d 470 (1998) arose from the arrest of the defendant in his apartment by New Jersey police officers, who had federal arrest warrants for crimes committed in New Jersey. Once in the apartment, the police saw cocaine and drug paraphernalia in plain view, and the defendant was charged for possession of those materials. The defendant moved to suppress on the grounds that the arrest was unlawful, but the trial court held that the officers had the authority to execute the federal warrant, and were thus lawfully in the defendant’s apartment, and the evidence was properly seized. The appellate court affirmed the trial court’s suppression decision, but on a ground—that the arrest was a “citizen’s arrest” pursuant to CPL 570.34—that had been expressly rejected by the trial court. Id. at 473.
