The attorney representing Anthony Oddone filed a notice of appeal with Suffolk County Criminal Court last Thursday, April 15, a day after Mr. Oddone was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the 2008 killing of Andrew Reister of Hampton Bays.
Defense attorney Sarita Kedia had told Judge C. Randall Hinrichs that an appeal would be filed immediately, after the judge threw the book at her client.
Mr. Oddone, 27, of Farmingville, was convicted in December of first-degree manslaughter following a two-month trial and nine days of jury deliberations. Mr. Oddone was convicted of killing Mr. Reister, an off-duty prison guard who was working part-time as a bouncer at a Southampton Village bar in August 2008.
Mr. Oddone was transferred to the Downstate Correctional Facility, a maximum security detention center in Fishkill, New York. He will likely be transferred to another facility to begin serving his sentence while his appeal wends its way through the legal process.
Mr. Oddone has already spent 20 months at the Rikers Island jail in New York City, where he was sent after his 2008 arrest because Mr. Reister had been a corrections officer at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead.
The time served already will count toward his 22-year sentence. According to state statutes, Mr. Oddone must serve six-sevenths of his total sentence before being eligible for early release for good behavior. The earliest he could be released under the current sentence is just over 17 years from now, in June 2027. His maximum stay in prison would last until August 2030, when he will be 47 years old.
MICHAEL WRIGHT
You're correct -- the judge did a good job in an emotion-charged milieu.
Also Mr. Wheeler's posts have contributing much to the discussion.
Forgiveness is a two-way street, Frankly speaking!
(" . . . not working right . . . cliche . . . doesn't fit . . . " -- ???)
Re: the appeal, juror misconduct may be a reversible error IMO. See earlier article comments.
Oddone is in prison upstate now.
maybe in 17 years when hes gets out mr oddone will still have his caddying job waiting there for him.
what a good way to flush your life down the toilet.
One of the costs of our precious Liberty and Freedom IMO.
I don't put to much stock in the replies here, I am just wondering. We all sit around and discuss this and hash it through, and our opinions and information don't mean a thing.
We have a Constitution which protects our rights to a fair trial.
A fair trial includes jury deliberations free of untoward influence by one or more jurors against another juror whose vote for or against conviction was apparently not clear until the final moment.
Juror misconduct will definitely be an issue on appeal. Although the trial judge chose not to dive into this issue during and after the trial, the appellate ...more courts must address this.
The Constitutional protection for a fair trial (among other protections) exists for ALL of us, even those who have factually committed the violent acts with which they have been charged. Even those who are "thugs, low-life's, murders, creeps, etc. etc. " (check out the range of names in all the comments, they are quite enlightening) are entitled to be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, which includes a fair trial with a jury which has not conducted itself inappropriately.
THIS IS NOT SOME ABSTRACT INTELLECTUAL NICETY !!!
It is the real life and blood of OUR Constitutional Democracy in action.
Choose it or lose it.
Anyone who disagrees with this Constitutional protection, as applied in this case, is basically asking to go back to England in the 1500's and 1600's, with the Star Chamber. Or back to Russia in the 1950's and 1960's. Or to many other countries throughout history with less protection within their legal systems.
Or back to the South in this country before the 1960's in which many Americans with darker skin were given a "fair trial" and then lynched from the nearest tree, to the chorus of many.
Mr. Reister's death at the ends of Mr. Oddone was indeed a tragic event, but please do not compound the tragedy by de-valuing Mr. Oddone's right to an appeal, nor by denigrating the Constitutional guaranty of a trial clear of juror misconduct.
The appellate courts will deal with all the issues, and render their decisions. This is part of of our Rule of Law, and will take some time.
Again, please choose it or lose it.
I hope your friend has met some nice friends upstate..the real likes of himself.