People ex rel. Dote v. Martin

269 A.D. 59, 53 N.Y.S.2d 827, 1945 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2919
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 14, 1945
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 269 A.D. 59 (People ex rel. Dote v. Martin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. Dote v. Martin, 269 A.D. 59, 53 N.Y.S.2d 827, 1945 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2919 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1945).

Opinion

Dowling, J.

On April 24, 1922, the relator, Alphonse Dote, was convicted by the verdict of a jury in Oneida County Court of the crime of burglary, first degree. On April 28, 1922, the relator was sentenced by Hon. Frederick H. Hazard, Oneida County Judge, who presided at relator’s trial, to Nexv York State Prison at Auburn for a term of “ not less than 13 years nor more than 20 years.” On this sentence the relator was credited with two months and txventy-six days jail time. The relator was received at Auburn State Prison on April 29, 1922. The relator was paroled from prison on November 21, 1931. The relator was declared delinquent as of February 14, 1934, and was returned to prison on March 2,1934, with a credit of twenty days parole jail time. The relator was reparoled from prison on March 2,1936. At a meeting of the Board of Parole held at Great Meadow Prison on February 17, 1938, the relator was declared delinquent as of Noxrember 9, 1937, on the ground that he had“ absconded from supervision ” on November 9,3937. The relator xvas apprehended in the State of New Jersey and xvas returned to prison on April 23, 1940. The relator was credited with all time spent on parole prior to November 9, 1937. The Board of Parole directed that the relator should serve the remainder of his maximum sentence.

Before the relator was reparoled on March 2, 1936, he signed' an agreement, in accepting parole, which provided, in part, as follows: “ I will not leave the State of New York or the community to which I have1 been paroled without the written permission of my parole officer. * * * During the period which [61]*61I am on parole, should I commit a felony, either in New York State or any other State, 1 understand that in addition to serving the sentence pronounced upon me for this offense, I shall be compelled to serve in a State penal institution, the portion remaining of the maximum term of the sentence on which I was released on parole, from the time of such release on parole tc the expiration of such maximum.”

On November 14, 1937, the relator was arrested at Remsen, Oneida County, N. Y., by the State Police on a charge of violating section 1201 of the Penal Law which makes it a felony to destroy insured property under circumstances not amounting tc arson. While in the lawful custody of the State Police at Remsen on the aforesaid charge, the relator unlawfully escaped from their custody. On January 14, 1938, the relator was indicted by the Grand Jury of Oneida County for the crime of arson, second degree, charged and committed as a second offense. The Grand Jury also indicted the relator for the crime of escape, a felony, contrary to the provisions of section 1694 of the Penal Law. On April 6, 1940, the relator was arraigned on both indictments in Oneida County Court to which indictments the relator entered a plea of not guilty. On April 22, 1940, the relator, on advice of counsel, withdrew his plea of not guilty and entered a plea of guilty to both indictments. On April 22,1940, the court sentenced the relator to Attica State Prison for a term of seven years for the crime of violation of section 1694 of the Penal Law. On the same day the court sentenced the relator to Attica State Prison for a term of not less than five years and not more than ten years for the crime of violation of section 1201 of the Penal Law. The court ordered that the sentences, sc imposed, be served concurrently with each other, and that both sentences run concurrently with such portion of the sentence imposed on the relator on April 28,1922, as remained unserved. The relator was allowed nineteen days jail time.

On June 12, 1941, the relator was returned to the Oneida County Court for correction of the sentences imposed on relator on April 22, 1940. The court vacated the sentences imposed on the relator on April 22,1940, and on June 16,1941, upon relator’s plea of guilty entered April 22,1940, sentenced the relator, who was represented by counsel, for the crime of violation of section 1694 of the Penal Law, to Attica State Prison for a term of not less than one year and not more than two years, and for the crime of violation of section 1201 of the Penal Law, the Court suspended the passing of sentence. The relator was returned to the custody of the Warden of Attica State Prison. On Maj [62]*6212, 1944, the Board of Parole allowed the relator to begin .the service of his one to two years sentence.

In July, 1944, the relator procured a writ of habeas corpus directing the Warden of Attica State Prison to produce the relator before a Special Term of the Supreme Court, Wyoming County, to be held at Attica State Prison on August 22, 1944. In his petition for the writ, the relator claimed that his sentence of thirteen to twenty years had expired and that his sentence ' of one to two years had expired on February 2,1944. The Warden of Attica produced the relator as directed and made return to the writ. The return vas not traversed by the relator. In his return the Warden certified that the relator was in his custody and was being detained by him “ by virtue of the final judgment of a court of competent criminal jurisdiction, and said judgment and sentence are still in full force and effect and the sentence of said relator has not expired ”. The Warden attached to and made a part of his return the judgments of conviction of April 28, 1922, and of June 16, 1941. The Warden claimed the right to detain the relator by virtue of both of said judgments which he maintained were in full force and effect.

The matter came to a hearing before Mr. Justice Alonzo G-. Hinkley on the petition and the return. So far as appears in the record, no testimony was taken and no documentary proof was offered. Justice Hinkley took the matter under advisement and on September 25, 1944, rendered a decision sustaining the writ and ordering the release of the relator. On October 17, 1944, an order sustaining the writ and directing the- discharge from imprisonment of the relator was entered in Wyoming County clerk’s office. From that order the People • of the State of New York, on October 18, 1944, have appealed.'

Justice Hinkley reached the conclusion that the maximum sentences of the relator had expired and that any condition attached to the relator’s parole which extended the relator’s imprisonment beyond the date of the expiration of relator’s maximum sentences was illegal, unconstitutional and unauthorized ” citing People ex rel. Ingenito v. Warden, etc., Auburn Prison (267 App. Div. 295, affd. 293 N. Y. 803). With Justice Hinkley’s conclusion we are unable to agree.

The law governing the relator’s release on parole is to be found in the Prison Law as it existed at the time of his sentence on April 28, 1922. (People ex rel. Ingenito v. Warden, etc., Auburn Prison, supra.) Section 214 of the Prison Law, as amended by Laws of 1922, chapter 297, effective March 27, 1922, authorized the Board of Parole to release a convict, upon his applica[63]*63tion, on parole outside of prison walls upon such terms and conditions as such Board shall prescribe. A convict, so released on parole, was to remain

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Bluebook (online)
269 A.D. 59, 53 N.Y.S.2d 827, 1945 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2919, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-dote-v-martin-nyappdiv-1945.