People v. Wolfe

• Decision Date: 14 October 1950
• Citation: 199 Misc. 413
• Parties: The People of the State of New York, Plaintiff,<BR>v.<BR>Lewis Wolfe, Defendant.
• Court: New York District Court

199 Misc. 413

The People of the State of New York, Plaintiff,

v.Lewis Wolfe, Defendant.

October 14, 1950.

Nicholas Pecora and Herbert E. Walters for defendant.

Miles F. McDonald, District Attorney (William I. Siegel of counsel), for plaintiff.

GOLDSTEIN, J.

The defendant is awaiting execution of a sentence of death at Sing Sing Prison, having been convicted of murder in the first degree. He now makes application for a new trial based on the grounds of newly discovered evidence.

This case has been pending before the court since January 3, 1944, on which date Lewis Wolfe was indicted by a Grand Jury of this county for the crime of murder in the first degree. The indictment is predicated on a complaint that on or about December 29, 1943, the defendant willfully, feloniously and of malice aforethought struck and killed his wife, Paula Mona Wolfe. The history of the case has many ramifications and is unique in the annals of criminal jurisprudence. It has presented many vexing problems, not the least of which has been the passage of lengthy intervals of time, first between indictment and trial and later between the conviction and the imposition of sentence. In all more than six years have elapsed since the defendant was indicted. During that period two of the persons who were associated with the case as counsel for the defendant have been removed from it — one (former District Attorney Joab H. Banton) by death and the other (Attorney Philip Warren) by severe illness which has required continuing hospitalization. Because of these unfortunate circumstances, the court has had to forego the services of two of the persons. After the death of Mr. Banton the court appointed Attorney Herbert E. Walters to assist the remaining counsel, Mr. Nicholas Pecora, in the defense.

Another problem has been that of the relationship between the defendant and the various lawyers who have defended him, and specifically his inability or refusal to follow the advice of these gentlemen. The record discloses that the defendant discharged his first attorney, Hyman Barshay, Esq., a noted attorney, because the latter was of the opinion that a defense of insanity should be interposed. In retaining his present attorney, Mr. Nicholas Pecora, the defendant expressly enjoined Mr. Pecora from interposing a defense of insanity. Such were the circumstances under which the defendant was brought to trial before this court and a jury on October 18, 1944, more than nine months after the indictment was returned. The trial continued until November 1, 1944, on which date the jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, as charged, without recommendation.

The fact that the defendant's capacity to understand the nature of the charge against him and to make his defense, was not made an issue in the case until after the jury had rendered its verdict, is perhaps the most vexing of all the problems in the case. The subsequent efforts to clarify by clinical observation and by the expert testimony of various psychiatrists, the mental condition of the defendant at the time of his trial, have added tremendously to the voluminous record already made in the case. The minutes of the trial and the minutes of the several subsequent hearings have now produced some 5,000 pages of testimony and this is exclusive of the increment to the total record created by the lengthy moving papers and responses that have been prepared in the different motions and applications presented to the court.

The court has carefully scrutinized the entire record in considering the present application. Recapitulated as briefly as possible, the record discloses the following developments in the case subsequent to the jury's verdict:

On or about November 8, 1944, Philip Warren, Esq., as one of the attorneys for the defendant, presented a petition to this court requesting that all proceedings be stayed and that the defendant be committed for mental examination. The court granted this application and entered an order pursuant to the provisions of section 658 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, committing the defendant to the division of psychiatry of Bellevue Hospital, to be examined as to his mental condition. Thereafter, the division of psychiatry of Bellevue Hospital submitted a report to the court dated December 5, 1944, containing the findings and conclusions of the examiners.

The report stated that the defendant was insane, suffering from a mental disorder, diagnosed as schizophrenia (dementia praecox) of the paranoid type; that he was incapable of understanding the charge and proceedings against him. It recommended commitment to the Matteawan State Hospital at Beacon, New York. This report was signed by S. Bernard Wortis, M.D., director of the psychiatric division, Morris Herman, M.D., assistant director and Benjamin Apfelberg, M.D., senior psychiatrist.

Thereafter, at a hearing held on December 8, 1944, the report was confirmed by the court and an order was made and entered pursuant to section 662-b of the Code of Criminal Procedure committing the defendant to the Matteawan State Hospital at Beacon, New York. Said order provided in part as follows: "Ordered that the report of the Psychiatrists of Bellevue Hospital, dated December 5, 1944, that Lewis Wolfe is presently insane and incapable of understanding the charge and proceedings against him and of making his defense, be and the same hereby is confirmed, and the defendant be and he hereby is committed to the Matteawan State Hospital at Beacon, New York, until he shall no longer be in such state of idiocy, imbecility, or insanity, as to be incapable of understanding the charge and proceedings against him or of making his defense, when he shall be returned to this court for judgment upon the conviction herein." The defendant was committed to the Matteawan State Hospital, pursuant to the provisions of that order.

On February 9, 1950, Dr. John F. McNeill, M. D., Superintendent of the Matteawan State Hospital, certified to this court that the defendant was no longer in such a state of idiocy, imbecility, or insanity, as to be incapable of understanding the charge pending against him or making his defense thereto. On February 11, 1950, an order was made and entered directing and ordering the defendant's return from Matteawan to the Kings County Jail.

On February 15, 1950, and on subsequent dates thereafter, hearings were held to determine whether or not the court should confirm the report of the Matteawan authorities. The developments at the hearing produced the unusual situation wherein the doctors of the Matteawan State Hospital reversed their previous diagnosis as to the then mental condition of the defendant. At the commencement of the hearings to confirm the report, the District Attorney moved such confirmation. However, at the conclusion of the hearings, the District Attorney withdrew his motion to confirm the report, and when counsel for the defendant thereupon moved such confirmation, the District Attorney took no position either for or against such motion.

When the Matteawan authorities reversed their opinion as to the mental condition of the defendant, the court appointed two independent psychiatrists to aid the court in arriving at a just and proper conclusion. These were Drs. Louis Berg and Laurent Feinier. Subsequently at a hearing on March 15, 1950, these two psychiatrists testified that in their opinion the defendant was, at the particular time of their examination (March, 1950) capable of understanding the charge made against him and of making his defense thereto. They agreed, however, to the diagnosis made at Matteawan to the effect that the defendant had suffered a manic depressive psychosis. In substance, their conclusion was to the effect that the defendant had recovered sufficiently to enable him to understand his situation vis-a-vis the court, within the meaning of section 1120 of the Penal Law. What disagreement there was between the positive findings of Drs. Berg and Feinier and the negative findings of the Matteawan State Hospital psychiatrists as to the defendant Wolfe's mental condition in March, 1950, lay chiefly in their respective interpretations of the scope and significance of certain ideas of reference expressed by, or elicited from the defendant. All were agreed that there had been a severe psychotic episode and in this they also agreed with the findings of the psychiatrists of the Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Division, as previously put into the record in the report of December 5, 1944, and the formal hearing of December 8, 1944.

On March 18, 1950, after having carefully studied the testimony and the opinions of all the expert witnesses, the court rendered a lengthy written decision in which the entire case history was discussed with all its medical and legal and humanitarian problems. (People v. Wolfe, 198 Misc. 695.) The court decided that on all the evidence then before it, the report of the Matteawan authorities dated February 9, 1950, should be confirmed. This meant that the court after due deliberation found that the defendant was at that time and is at the present time not in such a state of idiocy, imbecility or insanity as to be incapable of understanding the charge against him or making his defense thereto. Thereafter, on March 20, 1950, the defendant was brought before the court and the death sentence was pronounced upon him, as is mandatory under the law.

On March 21, 1950, Nicholas Pecora, Esq., attorney for the defense, presented an affidavit and order to show cause praying for a new trial pursuant to the provisions of subdivision 7 of section 465 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on the ground of newly discovered evidence. The basis of the present application is that counsel for the defendant now urges upon the court that at the time the defendant was placed on trial and all during the trial (October 16th to November 1st, inclusive, 1944) he was in such a state of idiocy,...