Despite a Guilty Plea, a Ruling Allows Black Man to Sue New York City

NYTimes

A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that a man whose 1998 conviction for the attempted murder and attempted robbery of a Bronx livery cab driver was reversed but who later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge could still sue the city for violating his rights.

The plaintiff, Michael Poventud, 43, who had said he was innocent, served nine years in prison before his conviction was vacated in 2005 on grounds that the authorities had not disclosed evidence to his lawyers that could have helped his defense.

Rather than undergo a retrial, he pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in the third degree and acknowledged that he had been armed and present at the scene of the crime. He was given a one-year sentence and was immediately released from prison.

But a judge dismissed a lawsuit he filed on grounds it was legally prohibited because of his guilty plea.

On Thursday, in a ruling that revealed heated debate among judges and touched on philosophical questions about the search for truth in the justice system, the appeals court held that Mr. Poventud’s plea did not preclude him from seeking damages from those he accused of violating his right to a fair trial.

“Poventud’s claims are not the stuff of prison idleness or self-absorption,” Judge Richard C. Wesley of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit wrote, adding that Mr. Poventud had succeeded in having his conviction overturned because of “a constitutional infirmity.”

The appeals court, which usually rules through three-judge panels, ruled 2 to 1 in April in favor of Mr. Poventud. In a rare step, the full, or “en banc,” court then took up the matter, with 15 judges participating in the ruling on Thursday.

Judge Wesley wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by eight other judges. A 10th concurred and dissented in part. Five other judges dissented. Six opinions were issued.

“They’re all wresting with the challenges of a system that doesn’t always know the truth and where trials aren’t always fair and huge incentives are offered to plead guilty,” said Daniel C. Richman, a law professor at Columbia University.