Still, a habeas court may determine that the state appellate court relied on the contemporaneous objection rule even though the statute was not specifically invoked. See, e.g., Frazier v. Lilley, No. 18-CV-7240 (NSR) (JCM), 2020 WL 13561689, at *9 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 12, 2020), adopted by 2022 WL 4661999 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2022); Burwell v. Lafflin, No. 14-CV-3070 (GHW), 2016 WL 8677292, at *6 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 5, 2016) (“although the ‘Appellate Division did not expressly state that its decision . . . rested on [N.Y. C.P.L. § 470.05(2) as] a state procedural bar,” the state court's statement that the defendant's “remaining claims are unpreserved and we decline to review them in the interest of justice” was sufficient to establish that it was relying on the contemporaneous objection rule) (quoting Baptiste v. Ercole, No. 08-CV-8026 (DAB), 2011 WL 611821, at *2-3 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 16, 2011)); Holguin v. Lee, No. 13-CV-1492, (LGS) (JLC), 2014 WL 5508331, at *8 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 31, 2014), adopted by 2016 WL 1030129 (Mar. 10, 2016); Gonzalez v. Cunningham, 670 F.Supp.2d 254, 261 (S.D.N.Y. 2009) (collecting cases).
Although the Appellate Division did not expressly indicate its basis for finding the claim to be unpreserved, the court presumably relied on New York's contemporaneous objection rule, N.Y. C.P.L. § 470.05(2). See Baptiste v. Ercole, No. 08-cv-8026 (DAB), 2011 WL 611821, at *2-3 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 16, 2011) (although the "Appellate Division did not expressly state that its decision . . . rested on [N.Y. C.P.L. § 470.05(2) as] a state procedural bar," the state court's statement that the defendant's "remaining claims are unpreserved and we decline to review them in the interest of justice" was sufficient to establish that it was relying on a procedural bar). Section 470.05(2) requires that objections be brought to the attention of the trial court at the time of the challenged ruling, and thus, "New York appellate courts will review only those errors of law that are presented at a time and in a manner that reasonably prompted a judge to correct them during criminal proceedings."