People v. Clayton

Decision Date01 July 1968
Citation293 N.Y.S.2d 104,39 N.E.2d 734,22 N.Y.2d 841
Parties, 239 N.E.2d 734 PEOPLE, etc., Respondent, v. Robert CLAYTON, Appellant.
CourtNew York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, 28 A.D.2d 543, 279 N.Y.S.2d 605.

Frederic Block, Centereach, for appellant.

George J. Aspland, Riverhead (Joseph F. O'Neill, Riverhead, of counsel), for plaintiff-respondent.

Defendant, who had been convicted of second degree murder, brought an application for writ of coram nobis.

Defendant contended that confessions introduced at his murder trial were involuntary. The murder took place on a farm, at about 3:00 p.m. Defendant and nine other workers were taken to police headquarters and were put into a room in which the lights remained on all night. Defendant and the others were each taken from the room for questioning from time to time during the night into the following morning when at 5:00 a.m. defendant made an apparently exculpatory statement. Later that day the police confronted defendant with another worker on the farm, who stated that he had helped defendant carry the body of the deceased into the barn. At 9:00 that night the defendant was brought before a judge who committed him as a material witness in default of $10,000 bail. The following day the defendant was interrogated by the police at various times and was taken to the farm in the afternoon, and was questioned in the presence of a stenographer at about 10:00 p.m., was brought back to the farm shortly before midnight where he made further admissions, and was returned to police headquarters about 2:00 a.m. where he was questioned further. About 3:00 a.m. the whole incriminatory transcript was read to defendant, certain corrections directed by him were made, and he signed it. Concededly during the entire period of his interrogation he was not advised of his rights. He testified that he requested an attorney a number of times and asked to have a telegram sent to his mother but was told by the police that he would first have to give them a statement. The County Court, Suffolk County, Thomas M. Stark, J., found that the confessions were voluntary and entered an order adverse to the defendant.

The Appellate Division entered an order May 8, 1967 which affirmed the order of the County Court, Suffolk County.

Christ, Acting P.J., dissented and voted to reverse the order, on ground that the confessions were involuntary and inadmissible.

The defendant appealed to the...

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4 cases
  • United States ex rel. Clayton v. Mancusi
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York
    • May 13, 1971
    ...upon the ground that the confessions were involuntarily obtained.1 The Court of Appeals affirmed without opinion, 22 N.Y.2d 841, 293 N.Y.S.2d 104, 239 N.E. 2d 734 (1968), and the Supreme Court denied certiorari, 394 U.S. 909, 89 S.Ct. 1018, 22 L.Ed.2d 219 (1969). Clayton thereupon filed the......
  • Mancusi v. United States ex rel. Clayton
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
    • January 17, 1972
  • People v. Clayton
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
    • April 2, 1973
    ...States denied certiorari (People v. Clayton, 28 A.D.2d 543, 279 N.Y.S.2d 605 (Christ, Acting P.J. dissenting), affd., 22 N.Y.2d 841, 293 N.Y.S.2d 104, 239 N.E.2d 734, cert. den. sub nom., Clayton v. New York 394 U.S. 909, 89 S.Ct. 1018, 22 L.Ed.2d 219). 2 Having thus exhausted his State rem......
  • People v. Feldt
    • United States
    • New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
    • July 1, 1968

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