A New York Court of Appeals ruling against Charles Smith’s finger gun is very real.
(FOX)- Per the Wall Street Journal, the court decided Tuesday to retain Smith’s conviction of attempted first-degree robbery instead of reducing the charge, even though it was Smith’s hand, not a firearm, under his hoodie when he told a teller at a Queens check-cashing store he had a gun and demanded money.
The court says that, based on an interpretation of New York’s penal law regarding robbery, the teller reasonably could have thought Smith really had a gun, warranting the higher charge.
To bolster its decision for this 2011 case, the court cited a previous 1989 case it had ruled on in which it said the ball was in the defendant’s court to prove there was no gun, the New York Law Journal reports.