People v. Snyder

• Citation: 74 N.E.2d 657,297 N.Y. 81
• Parties: PEOPLE v. SNYDER et al.
• Decision Date: 02 July 1947
• Court: New York Court of Appeals

297 N.Y. 81

74 N.E.2d 657

PEOPLE

v.SNYDER et al.

Court of Appeals of New York.

July 2, 1947.

Appeal from Supreme Court, Erie County; Munson, Justice.

Kenneth Snyder and Henry Kennedy were convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree under indictment charging that defendants, in the city of Buffalo, on September 28, 1946, willfully, feloniously, and of malice aforethought killed William Callahan by cutting him with a sharp instrument and by striking, beating and kicking him by and with the use of hands, fists, and feet, and they appeal from judgment of the Supreme Court, rendered January 24, 1947.

Judgments of conviction reversed and new trials ordered as to both defendants.

LEWIS, THACHER, and FULD, JJ., dissenting.W. Bartlett Sumner and John O. Henderson, both of Buffalo, for Henry Kennedy, appellant.

Jerome Cantor and W. Franklin Ness, both of Buffalo, for Kenneth Snyder, appellant.

Gordon Steele, Dist. Atty., of Buffalo (Leonard Finkelstein, of Buffalo, of counsel), for respondent.

CONWAY, Judge.

On an evening in September, 1946, the defendants met in a tavern in Buffalo. Both had been drinking and they continued to do so together. They had known each other for a few months. About midnight Snyder asked Kennedy if he would go with him to a house at Mortimer Street and Broadway, where he had formerly occupied a room, to get a watch which he had left there as well as any other money or valuables which could there be stolen. Kennedy said he would and they set off together. The watch was a ‘woman's gold wrist watch’ which Snyder had purchased for $5, believing it to have been stolen, and which he had hidden in an electrical outlet. The room was numbered 1 and was on the second floor, of a two-story building, over a store. There were a dozen or more very small rooms on the floor with a common bathroom. They were numbered and let to roomers. They rented for approximately $2.50 each per week or for about 35 cents a day. Snyder had not lived in the house since 1944 but this was not the first time he had returned to seek the watch. In July of 1946, two months before, he had returned when intoxicated he had been convicted of drunkenness in 1944 and again in 1945 and had told the then occupant of room 1, the witness Bress, about the watch and had asked to be permitted to get it. Bress had refused and had put him out of the house. When Snyder and Kennedy arrived on this September night, they climbed upon the roof of the adjoining building and then entered the rooming house through a window. Kennedy said Snyder unlocked a door with some keys and they entered room 1. Snyder took the face off an outlet near the floor but failed to find his watch. They searched some clothes there, pulled the mattress off the bed and cut or ripped it open. They stayed in the room for ten or fifteen minutes but found nothing. Snyder then left that room, went along the corridor toward the rear and approached room 10. That had been the room of a man whom Snyder had noticed on more than one occasion loitering, as he thought, near room 1, when Snyder lived there and he intended to ask him, if he were still there, whether he knew anything about the watch. He saw a light under the door and knocked. Unfortunately room 10 was then occupied by William Callahan, the deceased, an elderly man who was employed as a janitor of a church. Callahan was not the man Snyder expected to see and neither defendant had ever seen him before. He opened his door and appeared to be surprised to see the defendants. They thought he was going to call out so they struck him, knocked him down and jumped upon him with their feet or kicked him. One or both ruptured his liver, lacerated his spleen, fractured his sternum and ribs and cut him upon the hand and face. From the injuries to the liver and spleen he died. They searched Callahan and the room but found nothing of value. They then left the premises, visited another tavern and separated. Snyder said he remembered nothing more until he awakened in his sister's home at noon the next day. Kennedy's wife testified that someone brought him home and he staggered to bed where he slept in his clothes and she left him there the following morning when she went to work. Neither Snyder nor Kennedy saw the other again until after their arrest on the 8th and 9th days of October respectively. Then each attempted to absolve himself of the killing and to put the full blame for the crime upon the other.

Such is the substance of the occurrences detailed to the jury. The defendants could have been bent upon robbery and brutally slaying Callahan to effectuate their purpose or the slaying might have been the result of drunken frenzy, without intent either to commit robbery or cause death. This was surely a case where it was necessary for prosecution and court to exercise ‘a caution increasing in degree as the offenses dealt with’ increased in gravity (Patton v. United States, 281 U.S. 276, 313, 50 S.Ct. 253, 263, 74 L.Ed. 854, 70 A.L.R. 263) in order that the defendants might be accorded their legal rights despite the natural indignation inspired by their conduct. One of those rights was to have counsel who was adequately prepared to defend them. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 71, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680.

The defendants were tried for murder committed while engaged in an attempted robbery and for common-law murder. While some reference was made to burglary the court in response to the final request to charge stated to the jury that ‘if it were a burglary to get into that house originally, it had been completed, in the Court's opinion, and when they went into room 10 they were embarking on a different enterprise. There is no connection whatsoever with the burglary.’ (Emphasis supplied.) That became the law which the jury was obligated to accept and apply and which is binding upon the People on this appeal. Both defendants were convicted of murder in the first degree while engaged in the commission of a felony, without a recommendation of life imprisonment.

The crime was committed on September 28, 1946. By October 25th it was evident that Snyder and Kennedy were wholly destitute and unable to employ counsel of their own choosing or to defray any incidental expense which might be incurred in the conduct of their cases. The County Court Judge so found and thereupon, on that day, assigned counsel for Snyder and separate counsel, Mr. Dwyer and Mr. Henderson, for Kennedy. In the following month. Mr. Steele, who later tried the instant case, was elected District Attorney of Erie County. Between the date of his election and December 31st he invited Mr. Dwyer, counsel for Kennedy, to become First Assistant District Attorney under him. On December 31st the same County Judge who had made the original assignment, entered an order, dated on that day, which contained the following recitals, among others, ‘It further appearing that the said John F. Dwyer has been appointed and has accepted the position of Assistant District Attorney of Erie County, and

‘It further appearing that by accepting said appointment, the said John F. Dwyer, Esq., has disqualified himself to act as counsel for the said defendant, Henry Kennedy, and the said resignation of the said John F. Dwyer having been received and accepted, and * * *’.

The order then directed that Mr. Dwyer be relieved of his counselship to Kennedy and that W. Bartlett Sumner be appointed in his place.

The clerk's minutes show that on January 3d, three days later, Mr. Steele moved before the Trial Justice to transfer the case to the Supreme Court and that the motion was granted. Mr. Sumner was present, as appeared later, because the County Judge had told him on December 31st that the retiring District Attorney had noticed the trial for January 6, 1947. Mr. Sumner requested an adjournment for two weeks since he had been in the case for but three days. The minutes recite: ‘Motion denied for any postponement.’ (Emphasis supplied.)

On January 6th, Mr. Sumner again appeared with Mr. Henderson before the Trial Justice and the following proceedings, quoted in full, were had:

‘Mr. Sumner: May it please the Court, last Friday morning the District Attorney moved this case for trial against the defendant Henry Kennedy and the defendant Kenneth Snyder, both being charged with the crime of murder in the first degree.

‘At that time there was no stenographer present when I made application for adjournment. Your Honor very graciously heard my argument and after we completed our argument and you ruled I called your attention to the fact there was no stenographer, I assume you will recall, and you said we could make the motion, so it would be part of the record, this morning, and, therefore, I will state now, as I did then, as to myself I was not notified until about noon Tuesday, the 31st day of December, by County Judge Robinson that he had appointed me to take the place of John Dwyer, who previously had been appointed to represent this defendant.

‘At that time I told Judge Robinson I would accept the appointment but I did not know when I could get ready. He informed me he understood it was set for trial January 6th and, of course, any application I would make for adjournment would have to be made to your Honor.

‘The following day was New Year's, Wednesday, and Thursday was the first time I was able to get in touch with the counsel, Mr. John Henderson, who had been appointed originally with Mr. Dwyer. In consultation with Mr. Henderson I learned he practically knew nothing about the case, had done little or no investigating, having relied upon Mr. Dwyer as counsel. I learned the only thing that had been done was that they made an application to your Honor for appointing a couple of psychiatrists, who were then making an examination of the defendants, and that the final step in their examination was to be taken this morning, the 6th of January, at the General Hospital, at 10 a. m., and...