Leyra v. Denno
Decision Date | 10 June 1953 |
Citation | 113 F. Supp. 556 |
Parties | LEYRA v. DENNO. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Osmond K. Fraenkel and Frederick W. Scholem, New York City, for petitioner.
Nathaniel L. Goldstein, Atty. Gen., State of N. Y., by Vincent A. Marsicano, Asst. Atty. Gen., State of N. Y., Miles F. McDonald, Dist. Atty., Kings Co., N. Y. and William I. Siegel, Asst. Dist. Atty., Brooklyn, N. Y., of counsel, for respondent.
This petition for a writ of habeas corpus has been filed by Camilo Weston Leyra, who is presently confined in a New York State prison awaiting execution under a sentence of death pronounced against him in the County Court of Kings County, New York, after a jury verdict of guilty of Murder in the first degree, New York Penal Law, McK.Consol.Laws, c. 40, § 1044. Upon appeal to the New York Court of Appeals the judgment of conviction was affirmed: three judges concurred in the majority opinion; a fourth judge concurred in result invoking the provisions of Section 542 of the New York Code of Criminal Procedure, which permits that court on appeal to give "judgment, without regard to technical errors or defects or to exceptions which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties"; and two judges, dissenting, voted to reverse, People v. Leyra, 1952, 304 N.Y. 468, 108 N.E.2d 673. Thereafter, an application was made to the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari to review the questions arising under the Constitution which the New York Court of Appeals certified were presented and necessarily passed upon, to wit: "whether the defendant was deprived of due process guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments thereof in the admission into evidence of the confessions of the defendant and in the admission into evidence of the testimony given by defendant at a prior trial." This application was denied on March 16, 1953, 345 U.S. 918, 73 S.Ct. 730 and an application for rehearing was denied on April 27, 1953, 345 U.S. 946, 73 S.Ct. 835.
In the petition now before me the petitioner urges only the claim that the confessions were improperly received in evidence.
At a hearing held by me it appeared that no relevant facts were in dispute and no request was made that testimony be taken. I called for and received the case on appeal before the New York Court of Appeals (which contains a complete stenographic transcript of the trial), and the petition filed for a writ of certiorari.
From the record of the proceedings heretofore had, I conclude that the petitioner is not barred from making this application for he has "exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State * * * by any available procedure". Section 2254, 28 U.S.C.A. I also conclude and am satisfied from the record before me that "the state process has given fair consideration to the issues * * *, and has resulted in a satisfactory conclusion." Brown v. Allen, 1953, 344 U.S. 443, 463, 73 S.Ct. 397, 410, 437. I find from the record that the federal constitutional rights of petitioner have been protected, that there has been no denial of due process, and I conclude that the petition should be denied.
The evidence offered on the prior trial concerning these confessions and the circumstances under which they were made is analyzed and meticulously stated in this opinion in which all the judges of this appellate court of last resort in New York State concurred.
Testimony was given as to statements made to a physician and psychiatrist, Dr. Max Helfand, beginning at about 5:30 p. m. on January 13, 1950, and as to later statements made to John J. Meenahan, a captain of the New York City Police Department, to William Herrschaft, an employee of petitioner's deceased father, who had known petitioner for about 10 years, and to two assistants in the office of the District Attorney of Kings County, New York.
The court noted of Dr. Helfand that, 302 N.Y. at page 359, 98 N.E.2d at page 556:
The court later in its opinion stated, 302 N.Y. at page 363, 98 N.E.2d at page 558:
The court with reference to the other statements of petitioner wrote, 301 N.Y. at page 365, 98 N.E.2d at page 560:
The court also noted that it was contended on behalf of petitioner that his statement had been induced by promises of leniency; as to this it wrote, 301 N.Y. at page 366, 98 N.E.2d at page 560:
It is not in dispute that substantially the same evidence was presented on both trials as to the circumstances surrounding the making of the statements by the petitioner. It was upon this same proof that the New York Court of Appeals unanimously held, on the first appeal, that the submission of the voluntary character of these statements would result in a denial of due process only as to the statement made to Dr. Helfand. The trial judge on the second trial so ruled. The judges, dissenting from affirmance on the second appeal to the Court of Appeals, did not depart from their holding on the prior appeal that the voluntary nature of the other statements should be submitted as a factual issue to the jury for its determination and not excluded by the court as a matter of law. The two dissenting judges stated that they had concluded that the conviction should be reversed because the trial judge had People v. Leyra, 1952, 304 N.Y. 468, 473, 108 N.E.2d 673, 674. It was by the application of local law—the provisions of the New York Code of Criminal Procedure —that the dissenting judges concluded that the trial court's ruling "became the law of the case" and "that any and all other confessions to the district attorney or those associated with him in the investigation and prosecution of this very homicide, must also be deemed to have been induced by that promise, and likewise inadmissible." That they were led to that conclusion by considerations of local law and not by a holding that constitutional rights of due process had been denied is manifest by the statement that ...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
United States v. La Vallee
...N.E.2d 673, certiorari denied 345 U.S. 918, 73 S.Ct. 730, 97 L.Ed. 1351; rehearing denied 345 U.S. 946, 73 S.Ct. 835, 97 L.Ed. 1371; D.C., 113 F.Supp. 556; 2 Cir., 208 F.2d 605; 347 U.S. 556, 74 S.Ct. 716. In this case on the second time around, Justice Minton dissenting (347 U.S. at page 5......
-
Leyra v. Denno
...Court properly gave consideration to the petition, Brown v. Allen, 344 U.S. 443, 73 S.Ct. 397, 437, 97 L.Ed. 469, but denied it. 113 F.Supp. 556. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed, Judge Frank dissenting. 208 F.2d 605. Petitioner then sought re- view in this Court, again ......
- United States v. Lefkoff, 10072.
-
United States v. Denno
...a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the district court, which Judge Ryan denied in a reasoned opinion reported in Leyra v. Denno, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 113 F.Supp. 556. This appeal The issue here concerns the use in the trials of confessions by petitioner to the brutal hammer murders of his e......