People v. Diaz
| Decision Date | 20 October 1960 |
| Citation | 170 N.E.2d 411,207 N.Y.S.2d 278,8 N.Y.2d 1061 |
| Parties | , 170 N.E.2d 411 PEOPLE, etc., Respondent, v. Norberto DIAZ, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, 10 A.D.2d 80, 198 N.Y.S.2d 27.
Defendant and three codefendants were indicted on charges of first-degree manslaughter, two counts, second-degree manslaughter, two counts, and conspiracy. The defendant was convicted of second-degree manslaughter, two counts, and conspiracy. The County Court, Bronx County, Eugene G. Schulz, J., rendered judgment, and the defendant appealed.
The prime specification of error urged by defendant as requiring a reversal of the judgment of conviction was that defendant's constitutional right to waive a trial by jury and to be tried by the court alone was violated.
The Appellate Division, M. M. Frank, J., affirmed the judgment and held that denial of defendant's motion for severance was not an abuse of discretion, and that it would have been an abuse of judicial discretion to grant a nonjury trial to defendant without waivers being offered by codefendants, where defendant and convicted codefendants were intimately involved in the commissions of the manslaughters and the conspiracy, and defendant made no claim that he was prejudiced by a joint trial or that he could not receive a fair and impartial verdict from jury, and that proof of guilt of defendant was established beyond a reasonable doubt in a trial fairly conducted. Botein, P. J., dissented.
The defendant appealed to the Court of Appeals, and motion was made in the Court of Appeals to have the appeal heard on the original record and typewritten briefs and for enlargement of time.
The Court of Appeals, 8 N.Y.2d 1004, 205 N.Y.S.2d 345, granted motion to have the appeal heard on the original record and typewritten briefs and for enlargement of time and set the case down for argument during the October, 1960 session of the Court of Appeals.
The defendant contended in the Court of Appeals that the Constitution Article 1, Section 2 gave him right to waive a jury trial, and that evidence did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that deceased persons died as result of drinking beverage, which had been sold by defendant, and which contained wood alcohol.
Isidore Dollinger, New York City (Irving Anolik, New York City, of counsel), for respondent.
Judgment affirmed.
All concur.
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...111 A.D.2d 696, 490 N.Y.S.2d 513 (1985); People v. Diaz, 10 A.D.2d 80, 198 N.Y.S.2d 27 (1st Dept., 1960), aff'd. 8 N.Y.2d 1061, 207 N.Y.S.2d 278, 170 N.E.2d 411 (1960). There is no little amount of uniformity in the decisions of other state courts upholding the constitutionality of positive......
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