Quattrocchi v. Langlois

• Decision Date: 16 May 1966
• Docket Number: No. 1761,1761
• Citation: 219 A.2d 570,100 R.I. 741
• Parties: Anthony A. QUATTROCCHI v. Harold V. LANGLOIS, Warden. M. P.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 570

219 A.2d 570

100 R.I. 741

Anthony A. QUATTROCCHI v. Harold V. LANGLOIS, Warden.

M. P. No. 1761.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

May 16, 1966.

Leo Patrick McGowan, Providence, for petitioner.

J. Joseph Nugent, Atty. Gen., Corinne P. Grande, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

PAOLINO, Justice.

The principal question presented here is whether the petitioner has a constitutional right to bail pending his appeal to this court from a conviction of manslaughter. This is a question of first impression in this state.

In his petition for a writ of habeas corpus petitioner, now confined at the adult correctional institutions pending his appeal from a conviction of manslaughter, prays that he be admitted to bail pending such appeal. The writ issued and pursuant thereto a return was filed and the pertinent records relating to the indictment have been certified to this court by the clerk of the superior court.

It appears from the record that after having been found guilty by a jury on June 3, 1965 on an indictment charging manslaughter the petitioner filed a motion for a new trial which was denied. On June 30, 1965 he was sentenced to a term of 18 years and on the same day, after the imposition of the sentence, he made an oral motion through his counsel requesting the trial justice to set bail so that he might be admitted to bail pending appeal.

It appears from the record that petitioner was then serving another sentence which would not expire sooner than October 1965. In view of this, since petitioner would not be prejudiced thereby, the trial justice continued decision of petitioner's motion until September 22, 1965 to afford counsel an opportunity to assist the court on the question of bail. He also stated that if petitioner felt it was necessary to get an earlier decision and he, the trial justice, was not available, petitioner could bring the matter up before some other justice of the superior court. Within the statutory period petitioner prosecuted a bill of exceptions to this court from his conviction of manslaughter.

On September 22, 1965, after hearing argument of counsel, the trial justice denied petitioner's motion to set bail. We have the transcripts of the June 30 and September 22, 1965 hearings.

In his return respondent sets forth the travel of petitioner's case from the time of his conviction to the time of his committal to respondent's custody by virtue of the mittimus issued by the superior court after petitioner was sentenced to serve a term of 18 years and also up to the time of the denial of his motion to set bail. In addition the return contains a detailed recital of petitioner's prior criminal record ¹ and a description of the crime for which petitioner was convicted and sentenced to serve a term of 18 years as 'a crime of great violence.' The return also alleges that on June 17, 1965, while being transported in the sheriff's van from the adult correctional institutions to the superior courthouse in Providence for the purpose of being present during the hearing on his motion for a new trial, petitioner assaulted and kicked another prisoner.

The petitioner contends that his constitutional rights, both state and federal, have been violated and that his statutory rights under G.L.1956, § 12-19-1, have been denied by the refusal of the trial justice to set bail. The respondent, on the contrary, argues that petitioner has neither a statutory nor a constitutional right to be admitted to bail pending an appeal from a conviction.

We shall first consider the question whether under our state constitution a defendant convicted of a felony has a right to have bail set pending an appeal to this court. No federal question is involved here-petitioner rests his claim to a constitutional right to bail pending appeal on the following portion of art. I, sec. 9, of our state constitution:

'All persons imprisoned ought to be bailed by sufficient surety, unless for offenses punishable by death or by imprisonment for life, when the proof of guilt is evident or the presumption great.'

The petitioner contends in substance that since art. I, sec. 9, makes no mention of 'before or after trial,' a liberal construction of the words 'ought to be bailed' requires that we interpret the pertinent provision to apply after conviction as well as before. We cannot agree with petitioner's argument on this issue. We hold that a defendant convicted of a felony does not have a right under our state constitution to have bail set pending a review of his conviction. The pertinent language of art. I, sec. 9, refers only to those cases in which the accused has not yet had a trial and does not confer a right to bail pending appeal from a conviction. This view is supported by the overwhelming weight of authority in this county in applying substantially similar constitutional provisions. See annotations in 19 A.L.R. 807 and 77 A.L.R. 1235 for a thorough discussion of cases involving the question of constitutional right to bail pending appeal from conviction.

Historically the right to bail before trial rested on the presumption of innocence of one accused of crime and eventually the concept of bail was developed. Although many reasons have been advanced for requiring accused persons to post bail before conviction, the primary purpose was to assure the presence of the accused in court for trial. See Carbo v. United States, 82 S.Ct. 662, 7 L.Ed.2d 769 (1962). See also Benoit v. Langlois, 96 R.I. 129, 189 A.2d 805. No sound reason has been advanced for extending this right after conviction. As the court said in Ex Parte Voll, 41 Cal. 29, which involved a conviction of manslaughter and constitutional provisions ² as to bail similar to ours:

'* * * We are of opinion that the Constitution, in declaring bail to be a matter of right, contemplated only those cases in which the guilt of the party had not been already judicially ascertained; cases in which the prisoner as yet stood upon his plea of not guilty, supported with all the presumptions of innocence with which the law delights to surround him. But when his trial has been had, and his plea proven false, the law will not stultify itself by presuming him other than that it has itself adjudged him to be. If the Constitution, indeed, intended to introduce the rule of absolute right to bail, as well after as before conviction of such felonies, it would result that no convict could be punished for his ascertained crime if he had either wealth or friends; for no mere pecuniary considerations could weigh against the alternative of a degrading imprisonment, at hard labor, for a crime involving moral turpitude. It would operate in practice as a mere money commutation for the infamous corporeal punishment which the law has denounced against the perpetration of crime.

'The literal interpretation insisted upon-following, as it does, the mere words of the Constitution-would not only entitle the prisoner to bail, pending his appeal taken, but would have done so had he not taken an appeal at all. In this view it was unnecessary for him to have stated, as he has done in his petition, that he had appealed from the judgment of conviction, because, upon the literal reading of the Constitution, upon which he insists, that is...