Hide Article Text (OCR)
Communication snafu caused judge’s mistakeBy Jim O'HaraStaff WriterAn Onondaga County Court judge apparently violated the state’s Criminal Procedure Law when he allowed some jurors in the Roland Patnode murder trial to move their cars after they had begun contemplating a verdict Monday night.Violation of the law, which mandates a jury be kept together once deliberations in a trial begin, may give Patnode a basis to appeal his conviction for second-degree manslaughter.The county’s jury commissioner blamed a lack of communication for the situation.Commissioner Russell Mangicaro said he failed to notify all the judges that a system had been worked out where jurors whose deliberations went later than 10 p.m. could retrieve their cars from a nearby parking garage without having to pay a S20 fee to get their vehicles after closing.Shortly after 9:30 p.m. Monday, County Court Judge Patrick J. Cunningham informed the jurors in the Patnode case that any cars in the garage at East Payette and Montgomery streets had to be left overnight or moved by 10 p.m. or the jurors would individually be responsible for a S20 fee that could not be reimbursed by the county.The jurors then decided they wanted to move their cars and Cunningham allowed eight or nine of them to be escorted by one court attendant to the garage to move their cars.As it turned out, the jury was unable to reach a verdict Monday night and ended up being housed overnight at the Hotels at Syracuse Square.But by separating the jurors — even for the brief time Monday night — an issue was created that an appellate court can review should Patnode appeal the outcome of his case.Tuesday morning, about an hour after resuming deliberations, the jury of nine men and three women acquitted the 24-year-old defendant of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter charges but convicted him of second-degree manslaughter in connection with the Oct 1 stabbing death of transvestite prostitute David McLaughlin.Should that conviction be appealed, and should the state Supreme Court Appellate Division in Rochester decide Cunningham should not have separated the jurors during their deliberations, the case against Patnode could have to be retried.Mangicaro said Tuesday there were no reason for the jurors to be taken out of deliberations to move their cars Monday night.According to the commissioner, he has an agreement with the garage owners where the county will pay one $20 fee to allow all jurors to retrieve their cars if deliberations go beyond the garage's 10 p.m. closing.
Newspaper Details
Syracuse Herald Journal
Syracuse, New York, US
Wed, Jul 29, 1987
Page 118
Full Page
Clipped by
Chad G.
USA 01 May 2023
Other Publications Near Syracuse, New York
Syracuse Journal
Syracuse Evening Herald
Syracuse Herald Journal
Syracuse Daily Courier and Union
Syracuse Daily Courier
