Section 470.20. Determination of appeals by intermediate appellate courts; corrective action upon reversal or modification  


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  • Upon reversing or  modifying  a  judgment,  sentence  or  order  of  a
      criminal court, an intermediate appellate court must take or direct such
      corrective  action  as  is necessary and appropriate both to rectify any
      injustice to the appellant resulting from the error or defect  which  is
      the subject of the reversal or modification and to protect the rights of
      the  respondent.    The  particular  corrective  action  to  be taken or
      directed is governed in part by the following rules:
        1.  Upon a reversal of a judgment after  trial  for  error  or  defect
      which  resulted  in prejudice to the defendant or deprived him of a fair
      trial, the court must, whether such reversal be  on  the  law  or  as  a
      matter  of  discretion  in the interest of justice, order a new trial of
      the accusatory instrument and remit the case to the criminal  court  for
      such action.
        2.   Upon a reversal of a judgment after trial for legal insufficiency
      of trial evidence, the court must dismiss the accusatory instrument.
        3.    Upon  a  modification  of  a  judgment  after  trial  for  legal
      insufficiency  of trial evidence with respect to one or more but not all
      of the offenses of which the defendant was  convicted,  the  court  must
      dismiss  the  count or counts of the accusatory instrument determined to
      be legally unsupported and must otherwise affirm the judgment.  In  such
      case,  it  must  either reduce the total sentence to that imposed by the
      criminal court upon the counts with respect to  which  the  judgment  is
      affirmed  or  remit  the case to the criminal court for re-sentence upon
      such counts; provided that nothing contained in this paragraph precludes
      further sentence reduction in the  exercise  of  the  appellate  court's
      discretion pursuant to subdivision six.
        4.    Upon  a  modification  of a judgment after trial which reduces a
      conviction of a crime to one for a lesser included  offense,  the  court
      must  remit  the  case  to  the criminal court with a direction that the
      latter sentence the defendant accordingly.
        5.  Upon a reversal or modification of a judgment after trial upon the
      ground that the verdict, either in its entirety or  with  respect  to  a
      particular count or counts, is against the weight of the trial evidence,
      the court must dismiss the accusatory instrument or any reversed count.
        6.    Upon modifying a judgment or reversing a sentence as a matter of
      discretion in the interest of justice upon the ground that the  sentence
      is  unduly  harsh  or  severe, the court must itself impose some legally
      authorized lesser sentence.