The Third Department affirmed denial of DVSJA resentencing where the defendant’s claimed childhood abuse occurred in 2002–2003 but the murder was committed in 2007 — finding insufficient temporal nexus and that his own testimony undermined the causation element.
The Third Department reversed one of Rainey’s two terroristic-threat convictions — holding that a private Snapchat message he did not intend to circulate lacked the required intent to intimidate a civilian population — while affirming convictions for Whisper bomb-threat posts and emails threatening a TV news station.
The Third Department reverses and holds that a police officer who suffered psychological trauma from a station-house shooting is a “crime victim” under New York’s Son of Sam Law without needing to show physical injury, broadly construing Executive Law § 632-a.
Third Department affirms civil confinement under Mental Hygiene Law Article 10, joining the First and Fourth Departments in holding that due process does not require the ‘sexual motivation’ element of a pre-SOMTA offense to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt — clear and convincing evidence is constitutionally sufficient.