People v. Baldi
- Decided
- October 29, 1981
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- New York
Cited 6,191 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- concluding that defense counsel was not constitutionally ineffective for, inter alia, testifying on behalf of client where doing so “strengthened the insanity defense” — Ramchair v. Conway (2010)
- challenge to five instances of attorney conduct reviewed on direct appeal where four of them were fully apparent on trial record — Walker v. Dalsheim (1987)
- “So long as the evidence, the law, and the circumstances of a particular case, viewed in totality and as of the time of the representation, reveal that the attorney provided meaningful representation, the constitutional requirement will have been met.” — Lin v. LaManna (2021)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
OPINION OF THE COURT Chief Judge Cooke.
An attorney who presents a well-grounded but unsuccessful defense will not later be held to have provided ineffective assistance of counsel, and thus a defendant will not be entitled to a vacatur of his conviction on such basis.
Joseph Baldi was convicted after separate trials for unrelated crimes committed nine months apart. The first judgment, entered November 24,1974, convicted defendant of attempted murder, burglary in the second degree, and felonious possession of weapons. The second judgment, entered January 16, 1975, convicted defendant of murder in the second degree. The Appellate Division, Second Department, reversed both convictions on the ground that Baldi was denied the effective assistance of counsel. The People appeal from the order of reversal. The Appellate Division’s order is now reversed.
Cite this
People v. Baldi, 54 N.Y.2d 137 (1981)Read the full opinion
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