United States v. Denno

• Decision Date: 02 December 1958
• Docket Number: Docket 25343.,No. 170,170
• Citation: 261 F.2d 511
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America ex rel. Edward ECKWERTH, Appellant, v. Wilfred L. DENNO, Warden of Sing Sing Prison, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

261 F.2d 511 (1958)

UNITED STATES of America ex rel. Edward ECKWERTH, Appellant, v. Wilfred L. DENNO, Warden of Sing Sing Prison, Respondent.

No. 170, Docket 25343.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued November 7, 1958.

Decided December 2, 1958.

Certiorari Denied January 26, 1959.

Barlow Smith, New York City, for appellant.

Warren J. Schneider, Asst. Dist. Atty. of Westchester County, White Plains, N. Y. (Joseph F. Gagliardi, Dist. Atty. of Westchester County, White Plains, N. Y., on the brief), for respondent.

Before CLARK, Chief Judge, WATERMAN, Circuit Judge, and GALSTON, District Judge.

Certiorari Denied January 26, 1959. See 79 S.Ct. 355.

CLARK, Chief Judge.

Edward Eckwerth, the relator, was found guilty of murder in the first degree after a trial to a jury in the Westchester County Court of New York in February 1957; the New York Court of Appeals affirmed without opinion, People v. Eckwerth, 4 N.Y.2d 811, 173 N.Y.S. 2d 614, 149 N.E.2d 894; 4 N.Y.2d 923, 175 N.Y.S.2d 164, 151 N.E.2d 351, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari June 30, 1958, Eckwerth v. People of State of New York, 357 U.S. 942, 78 S.Ct. 1396, 2 L.Ed.2d 1557. Judge Murphy below denied relator's petition for a writ of habeas corpus, but granted a certificate of probable cause; and we have stayed Eckwerth's execution which had been set for November 17, 1958. Issue is taken on whether two confessions admitted in evidence were coerced, so that his trial was without constitutional due process.

Viewed in its entirety, the trial in the Westchester County Court appears to have been fairly conducted; and relator was assigned experienced counsel who gave him excellent and persistent service, as has his present counsel on this appeal. The State's case was that relator killed Rosemarie Spezzo, a 24-year-old Yonkers, New York, parochial school teacher, and concealed her body on June 22, 1956, after having had intercourse with her and upon her threats to tell his wife. Her body remained undiscovered until August 25, 1956, when relator led police to the secluded spot near Yonkers where it was found.

Eckwerth, 28 years old at the date of the crime, is married and the father of a little girl. He lived with his wife and child and was employed as a house-to-house salesman for the Cook Coffee Co. until June 23, 1956 — the day after Rosemarie Spezzo disappeared. On the morning of that day Miss Spezzo's father, inquiring after his daughter, who had failed to return home the previous night, recognized Eckwerth as the salesman who made regular deliveries to the Spezzos' home and hailed him. To Mr. Spezzo's questions Eckwerth replied that he had seen Rosemarie the previous afternoon and that she had complained to him of a headache. He stated that he had no idea where she had gone after her brief conversation with him. Although Spezzo did not doubt the truth of relator's statements, he asked the latter for his name and address in order to give the police a complete report of his efforts to find his daughter. The relator gave him a fictitious name and an incorrect telephone number. Then directly after Spezzo drove off, Eckwerth drove to the local railroad station, there abandoned his truck, and, taking his gross sales receipts with him, proceeded by train to New York City and from there by bus across the country to Portland, Oregon. He was ultimately arrested on July 10, 1956, by Portland authorities for the theft of an automobile.

The relator was first questioned about Miss Spezzo's disappearence by Westchester authorities who arrived in Portland on August 21, 1956. They interrogated him for about an hour that evening. He was taken before an Oregon magistrate, where he waived extradition, and the following morning left by plane for New York. In police custody relator arrived at the New York airport about 9:45 p.m. and was immediately taken to the Yonkers Police Station, arriving there around 11:00 p.m. Here he was questioned for a short period by the police captain, and then from 12:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. by the District Attorney. Thereafter he was permitted to rest. At 8:45 that morning, August 23, several officers handcuffed relator and took him for a ride in a police car over a portion of his former delivery route. Apparently he was also handcuffed during subsequent trips in the police car. During this first trip he was again questioned about Rosemarie Spezzo's disappearance. At 11:30 a.m. relator was taken before a magistrate in Yonkers where he was notified of his rights and arraigned for passing bad checks and on a charge of grand larceny. He had passed two personal chceks on June 22 which were returned for insufficient funds, and in leaving Yonkers on June 23 he had absconded with some of his employer's funds. After the proceedings before the magistrate were concluded — about 12:30 p.m. — relator was taken to the Yonkers Police Station and given lunch. He was then further questioned and driven over portions of his delivery route until 3:45 p.m., when he was returned to the Yonkers jail and left undisturbed for the remainder of the day.

On August 24 at 10:30 a.m. relator was again taken from the jail. He went with two police officers for an hour's ride. During this trip, also, he was interrogated about the disappearance of Rosemarie Spezzo. Returned to the jail at 11:30 a.m., he was taken to the District Attorney's office in White Plains at 1:25 p.m. There two officers questioned him for about three and a half hours. At 5:40 p.m. the police officers discontinued their interrogation, and the District Attorney questioned him for a half hour. Relator was then taken back to the Yonkers jail and was not further questioned until 9:00 a.m. the following day. At that time he was again removed from the Yonkers jail and more or less continuously interrogated by the police until shortly after noon, when he agreed to lead them to Miss Spezzo's body.

On that day, August 25, as on the preceding days, a bare outline of relator's activities is not in substantial dispute. Relator rode in a police car with two police officers to New York City and back from 9:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. At 11:50 a.m. he was interrogated in the...