New York Laws
Article 470 - Appeals--Determination Thereof
470.20 - Determination of Appeals by Intermediate Appellate Courts; Corrective Action Upon Reversal or Modification.

corrective action upon reversal or modification.

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.