October 03, 2024
Firm wins new trial for client convicted of manslaughter
A New York judge has reversed the 2023 manslaughter conviction of our client, Gregory Thayer. (See previous posts on this case here and here.) As we alleged in our motion papers, Mr. Thayer’s local attorney never told Mr. Thayer or his lead attorney, Robert Gottlieb, that he had improperly met privately with the trial judge’s law clerk, who made statements suggesting that the clerk and the judge were biased against the defense. Ignorant of this crucial information, Mr. Thayer waived his right to a jury in favor of a bench trial before the same judge, who convicted Mr. Thayer of manslaughter.
After Mr. Gottlieb discovered the local lawyer’s error, he brought in our law firm to handle a motion to vacate the conviction. A different judge then held an evidentiary hearing, conducted for our client by Joel Rudin. Crediting our witnesses, the judge held that the conviction could not stand. He reasoned that the local attorney’s “lack of singleminded devotion to his client” had caused Mr. Thayer to waive a jury without knowing about the law clerk’s troubling statements.
Our motion papers are here. The court’s order vacating the conviction is here. News coverage of the decision has appeared in Law360, the Daily Freeman, and the Times-Union.