People ex rel. Branton v. Jackson

• Decision Date: 03 July 1958
• Citation: 6 A.D.2d 916,175 N.Y.S.2d 748
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York ex rel. John BRANTON, Relator-Respondent, v. J. Vernel JACKSON, Warden of Clinton Prison, Dannemora, New York, Respondent, and The People of the State of New York, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 748

175 N.Y.S.2d 748

6 A.D.2d 916

The PEOPLE of the State of New York ex rel. John BRANTON Relator-Respondent, v. J. Vernel JACKSON, Warden of Clinton Prison, Dannemora, New York, Respondent, and The People of the State of New York, Appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department.

July 3, 1958.

Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., for appellant Warden.

John Branton in pro. per.

Before BERGAN, J. P., and GIBSON, HERLIHY and REYNOLDS, JJ.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.

Appeal by the People from an order of the Supreme Court, Special Term, Clinton County, which sustained a writ of habeas corpus and directed relator's discharge from imprisonment.

Relator was in 1951, in the County Court of Nassau County, convicted of burglary and sentenced as a second felony offender. The indictment included an allegation of the prior conviction. At the hearing on the return of the writ, relator testified that upon the trial the District Attorney, in opening to the jury, read the indictment and, further, that he, relator, testified at the trial and admitted the prior conviction. In 1952, the first felony conviction was vacated, the ground of that action not appearing in this record. Relator was thereafter resentenced as a first offender.

In announcing its decision sustaining the writ, the Court said, addressing relator, that the County Court 'was without jurisdiction to resentence you as a first offender, after you had been convicted as a second offender' and said further: 'I am particularly concerned about the fact that the information of your prior conviction was presented to the jury during the course of your trial. It now appears and is conceded by the State that the prior felony conviction was not a conviction'.

That a defendant originally sentenced as a multiple offender may be resentenced, after the vacating of a prior conviction upon which the imposition of additional punishment was predicated, is not open to question. People ex rel. Sloane v. Lawes, 255 N.Y. 112, 174 N.E. 80; People ex rel. Marcley v. Lawes, 254 N.Y. 249, 172 N.E. 487.

We do not, however, construe the Special Term's decision as denying the general authority to resentence in such case. The Special Term was 'particularly concerned' with the possible prejudice which ensued from the disclosure to the jury of the relator's previous conviction. Nevertheless, that conviction, whatever infirmity therein was later disclosed was, at the time, properly pleaded and proven. People v....