Frank Sterling and the Denial of a Motion for DNA Testing

In an earlier post today, I wrote about Mark Christie pled guilty this week to the murder for which an innocent man, Frank Sterling, had served 18 years in prison, prior to his exoneration (see). As I discussed, one of the many reasons it took so long to establish Frank Sterling's actual innocence is that the trial court denied a motion pursuant to CPL 440.30(1-a), for DNA testing. Then, compounding the problem, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department affirmed this ruling (37 AD3d 1158[4th Dept 2007]), denying the innocent Mr. Sterling access to the evidence which, when eventually obtained, helped prove his innocence.

So it was kind of shocking to see that in People v Woodrich (4th dept 9/30/11) the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, cited its decision in Sterling as the authority for rejection another inmates' motion for DNA testing:

County Court properly denied the motion “because defendant failed to establish that there was a reasonable probability that, had those items been tested [further] and had the results been admitted at trial, the verdict would have been more favorable to defendant” (People v Sterling, 37 AD3d 1158).