People v. Freeland
| Decision Date | 07 May 1975 |
| Citation | 369 N.Y.S.2d 649,330 N.E.2d 611,36 N.Y.2d 518 |
| Parties | , 330 N.E.2d 611 The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Elverton P. FREELAND, Appellant. The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Edward G. McKNIGHT, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Henrietta M. Wolfgang, Nathaniel A. Barrell, Joseph B. Mistrett and Herbert M. Siegel, Buffalo, for Elverton P. Freeland, appellant.
Joseph B. Mistrett, Nathaniel A. Barrell and Henrietta M. Wolfgang, Buffalo, for Edward G. McKnight, appellant.
Edward C. Cosgrove, Dist. Atty. (William E. Balthasar, Buffalo, of counsel), for respondent.
Defendants appeal from their convictions for the murder of one prostitute and attempted murder of another. The motive was racial retribution, and all the persons involved were Blacks. Defendant Freeland was sentenced for 20 years to life and defendant McKnight for 25 years to life. The victims had been brutally beaten, strangled, and stabbed by two men who had picked them up at night in an automobile. The convictions rested on the testimony of the woman who survived the assault. The Appellate Division unanimously affirmed, with opinion.
A major issue is whether the trial court improperly excluded, as collateral, certain hospital record evidence concerning the heroin addiction of the principal witness, Mrs. Stewart, by which the defense sought to impugn her ability to identify defendants. Among other issues raised were the propriety of identification procedures, the denial to the defense of access to police officers' reports and notes, and whether the prosecution's summation was excessive.
There should be a reversal, and remittal for a new trial. The additional evidence of the heroin addiction of the prosecution's sole eyewitness, bearing on her ability identify defendants, was improperly excluded.
On May 10, 1972, at about 12:30 A.M., Orvetta Sanders Stewart and Stephonsa Washington were picked up on a Buffalo street corner by two men in a blue Buick Riviera with bucket seats. The passenger, who joined Stephonsa in the back seat, identified himself as 'Bob'. The surviving witness, Orvetta, who sat next to the driver, 'Eddie', turned in her seat at times so that she could see both men. She was not acquainted with either man, but would later recall having seen 'Eddie' a couple of years before selling a Black Muslim newspaper on a Buffalo street. The four drove for about 15 minutes through the lighted city streets, until they parked on Buell Street, a deadend.
The automobile was parked for about 10 minutes when Bob reviled the women for consorting with white men, voiced his disgust, and struck Stephonsa in the face. The witness Orvetta tried to reach for what she thought was a knife in an ashtray, and Eddie grabbed her hand. Bob was now strangling Stephonsa. Orvetta tried to open the door, but Eddie pulled her back by her coat, and struck the side of her face. Eddie started strangling Orvetta, who fainted. On regaining consciousness, Orvetta was in the street, suffering from a stab wound in the neck and other injuries. Stephonsa was later found on Buell Street, dead of strangulation.
Admitted to Meyer Memorial Hospital, Orvetta gave the police an initial description of the assailants. 'Bob' was a 'big guy', 'very tall', about 30 years old, wearing a green parka coat with hood and boots, his hair in a 'short bush', and with a mustache. 'Eddie' was about 5 feet, 10 inches in heig with very large hands, wavy hair, and clean-shaven, wearing a black cashmere coat.
On May 12, Orvetta was shown 4 photographs, from which she picked out defendant Edward McKnight as the 'Eddie' who had driven the car and attacked her. Subsequently, on May 26, Orvetta was shown a special album provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation containing some 45 photographs of known Black Muslims. After viewing about 13 of the pictures, she selected a photograph of defendant Elverton Freeland as 'Bob'. She also selected McKnight's photograph from the album.
In the police procedure and events that ensued, Orvetta reaffirmed and strengthened her initial photographic identifications. Shown a photograph of McKnight again on June 1, she made a positive identification. About this time, Orvetta also believed that she had passed a man on the street whom she later identified as Elverton Freeland, and that the man recognized her and turned to stare at her. On June 26, having now seen photographs of Freeland at least three times, Orvetta viewed him alone in a station house through a one-way mirror. The next day, June 27, she identified both defendants in lineups.
After an identification hearing, the hearing court declined to suppress Orvetta's identifications. The photographic album of Black Muslims, from which Orvetta made her identifications, was said to have been disassembled by the F.B.I., and could not be reconstructed or introduced either at the identification hearing or on the trial. Orvetta identified both Freeland and McKnight at trial, and her testimony was crucial and essential to the case for the prosecution.
Defendants Freeland and McKnight each testified in his own behalf. Freeland, a 43-year-old autoworker, veteran, and family man, had never been arrested or convicted for crime. He said he was a Black Muslim, and had known Edward McKnight casually as a member of the same Muslim mosque, but that he had not attended the mosque nor seen McKnight for a few years. His alibi was that he had celebrated a daughter's birthday on the night of May 9, and had slept the rest of the night with his wife. They so testified. A coworker and a neighbor testified that they had never seen Freeland wear a mustache. He had never been called 'Bob'.
Defendant McKnight, 29-year-old father of seven, and a bricklayer, also had no criminal record except for a juvenile and youthful offender burglary history. He was unable to account for his time late on the night of May 9, but thought he had driven home a friend, Duane Woodward, earlier that evening. Woodward testified to this quasi-alibi defense.
Neither Freeland nor McKnight was found to have owned a Riviera with bucket seats. Indeed, the car Orvetta described was never found, nor, for that matter, were the clothes she said Freeland and McKnight wore at the time of the crimes.
The case was tried in July, 1973 and defendants were sentenced on September...
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