TRENTON: RULING ON 'ABSENTIA'

The State Supreme Court yesterday threw out the conviction of a drug
defendant who never received the court's notice of his trial date and
was convicted in absentia, or while absent. After his arrest by
troopers on cocaine possession charges in April 1995, the defendant,
Lawrence Whaley, lost touch with his lawyer and did not respond to a
court notice mailed to an Ohio address he had already left. In
overturning a lower court decision upholding the 1997 conviction, the
unanimous high court ruled that when a defendant unknowingly does not
receive actual notice of the trial date, the judge cannot conclude
that he waived his right to be present.