PEOPLE v. WATSON (2008)

Appeal by the defendant, by permission, from an order of the County Court, Westchester County (Loehr, J.), entered July 6, 2006, which, without a hearing, denied his motion pursuant to CPL 440.10 to vacate a judgment of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (West, J.), rendered July 5, 2000, convicting him of murder in the second degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed.

 The defendant's motion to vacate the judgment was correctly denied because the contention that his plea allocution was insufficient could have been raised on his direct appeal and there has been no retroactively effective change in the law controlling that issue (see CPL 440.10[2][a];  Policano v. Herbert, 7 N.Y.3d 588, 603, 825 N.Y.S.2d 678, 859 N.E.2d 484).   The defendant's claim that he was denied the effective assistance of appellate counsel was improperly raised on this CPL 440.10 motion.   The proper procedure for addressing such a claim is an application for a writ of error coram nobis addressed to this Court (see People v. Bachert, 69 N.Y.2d 593, 595-596, 516 N.Y.S.2d 623, 509 N.E.2d 318;  People v. Velez, 286 A.D.2d 406, 728 N.Y.S.2d 720).

The defendant's remaining contention is without merit.