United States v. La Vallee

• Decision Date: 01 June 1960
• Docket Number: No. 231,Docket 25557.,231
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America ex rel. William PETERSEN, Relator-Appellant, v. J. Edwin LA VALLEE, Warden, Clinton Prison, Dannemora, New York, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

279 F.2d 396 (1960)

UNITED STATES of America ex rel. William PETERSEN, Relator-Appellant, v. J. Edwin LA VALLEE, Warden, Clinton Prison, Dannemora, New York, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 231, Docket 25557.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued April 11, 1960.

Decided June 1, 1960.

Edward Q. Carr, The Legal Aid Society, New York City, for relator-appellant; Jules B. Gerard, New York City, of counsel.

Edward S. Silver, Dist. Atty., Kings County, Brooklyn, N. Y., and Louis Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., State of New York, for respondent-appellee; William I. Siegel, Asst. Dist. Atty., Brooklyn, N. Y., of counsel.

Before SWAN, CLARK and FRIENDLY, Circuit Judges.

SWAN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a decision of Judge Brennan denying without a hearing the relator's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Judge Brennan granted the certificate of probable cause required by 28 U.S.C.A. § 2253, and this court assigned counsel. Although we have not been persuaded that the decision below was erroneous, the briefs and argument on behalf of appellant have been helpfully and ably presented and the court desires to express commendation and appreciation for this gratuitous public service of assigned counsel.

Appellant is presently serving a sentence of life imprisonment imposed in 1943 by a county court of the State of New York upon his conviction of first degree murder. The judgment of conviction was affirmed by the Appellate Division, People of State of New York v. Petersen, 267 App.Div. 882, 47 N.Y.S.2d 316. Leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals was denied in an unreported decision, and the Supreme Court of the United States denied a writ of certiorari, 324 U.S. 876, 65 S.Ct. 1016, 89 L.Ed. 1428 and a motion for rehearing, 324 U.S. 891, 65 S.Ct. 1023, 89 L.Ed. 1438. The relator had exhausted state remedies, as Judge Brennan found.

A complete record of the state court trial was before the district judge. Since petitioner's conviction rested upon confessions made by him between his arrest on Monday and his arraignment on the following Saturday, the ultimate issue is whether the confessions are a constitutionally permissible foundation for the finding of guilt. As stated in Stein v. People of State of New York, 346 U.S. 156, 179-182, 73 S.Ct. 1077, 1090, 97 L.Ed. 1522:

"Inquiries on which this Court must be satisfied are: (1) Under what circumstances were the confessions obtained? (2) Has the use of the confessions been repugnant to `that fundamental fairness essential to the very concept of justice?\' * * * It is only miscarriages of such gravity and magnitude that they cannot be expected to happen in an enlightened system of justice, or be tolerated by it if they do, that cause us to intervene to review, in the name of the Federal Constitution, the weight of conflicting evidence to support a decision by a state court. * * * When the issue has been fairly tried and reviewed, and there is no indication that constitutional standards of judgment have been disregarded, we will accord to the state\'s own decision great and, in the absence of impeachment by conceded facts, decisive respect."¹

During the period after arrest and before arraignment, Petersen was held incommunicado and was interrogated intermittently by police officers. He made four confessions. In the first three he admitted his complicity as a "lookout" during the burglary which resulted in the murder and named one Lonardelli as perpetrator of the crimes. In the fourth he admitted committing the crime himself. On this appeal he contends that we are required to determine (1) whether his confessions were coerced as a matter of law; and (2) whether the jury was properly instructed on the voluntariness of the confessions.

The crime of which appellant was convicted was the murder of Mrs. Catherine Watson on January 2, 1941, in a Brooklyn apartment house. She was brutally beaten about the head, and jewelry and other property was stolen from her apartment. Sixteen months later, on May 11, 1942, about 9:30 in the morning, the appellant was arrested by detective Rikeman while attempting to commit burglary. He was taken to the 68th Precinct in Brooklyn. Sometime during the first twelve hours of questioning he admitted orally to Rikeman his complicity in the murder of Mrs. Watson. Rikeman was in charge of investigating this unsolved murder. How petitioner came to talk about it does not appear. He told Rikeman that he acted only as a lookout for Lonardelli who had entered Mrs. Watson's apartment to commit burglary, and that Lonardelli perpetrated the murder. He also said that a prostitute who frequented at night a barroom in Manhattan might be able to lead the detectives to Lonardelli. On three successive nights detectives took him to the barroom to look for the prostitute. On Monday and Tuesday they remained until about 4 a. m. and then returned Petersen to a hotel room in Coney Island. On Wednesday night they brought him back to the Precinct about 1 a. m. Two other confessions substantially similar to his first were made by him on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. Each of these statements was recorded by a stenographer. Finally, about 1:30 a. m., on Thursday, May 14, when confronted with the fact that his sister had told the detectives that he had never met Lonardelli until a year after the murder, appellant admitted that his three prior confessions were false and confessed to having committed the murder himself. Shortly thereafter he was taken to the apartment of the deceased and made additional oral admissions. He was then returned to the 68th Precinct where a stenographer transcribed his fourth and final confession between 4:45 and 7 a. m. There were present in addition to Petersen, Assistant District Attorney Heffernan, two police captains and four detectives. Subsequently he was taken to several locations mentioned in his fourth confession and identified places and persons. He was not arraigned on the murder charge until the morning of May 16, 120 hours after his arrest.

Appellant contends that Judge Brennan erred in not holding the confessions coerced as a matter of law. At the county court trial Petersen asserted claims of physical mistreatment. His testimony was denied by the officials involved. Since there is no uncontradicted evidence to sustain the claim of coercion by physical mistreatment, it must be considered as adversely resolved by the trial jury. Appellant also claims that he was allowed to obtain little food or sleep during his detention prior to arraignment. These claims were rebutted by testimony that food was available, if requested by petitioner, and that sleeping facilities were furnished him. Again, there appears sufficient conflict in the evidence to require acceptance of Judge Brennan's conclusion that "petitioner's contention as to the lack of food or sleep during the period he was held prior to his arraignment appears to lack substance in the evidence." Cf. United States ex rel. Alvarez v. Murphy, 2 Cir., 277 F.2d 304.

Appellant's brief states that "coercion is urged not because of the delay in arraignment but because of what that delay made possible." It is vigorously contended that as soon as he admitted complicity in the burglary of Mrs. Watson's apartment, he was no longer a "suspect" but was a first degree principal to the crime of felony-murder, and should promptly have been charged and arraigned as such. Since this course was not adopted, it is...