People v. Hopkins

38 Misc. 2d 459, 238 N.Y.S.2d 485, 1963 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2247
New York Supreme Court·Decided February 20, 1963·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

J. Irwin Shapiro, J.

A jury has found the defendant guilty of assault, second degree, with intent to rape. He is now before me for sentence and in connection therewith the District Attorney has filed a prior offense information which alleges that the defendant is now a second felony offender by reason of the fact that he was previously convicted, after trial, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, of three crimes, viz., (1) aggravated assault and battery, (2) assault with intent to ravish and (3) rape (Indictment or Bill No. 59).

The defendant denies his status as a second felony offender (Penal Law, § 1941). The questions of law raised by that denial are now before me for determination upon an agreed statement of facts.1

Defendant’s identity as the Pennsylvania convict is conceded2 but he contends that the prior acceptance by the same court of a plea of guilty to the crime of fornication makes it legally impossible for the crimes alleged in the information now before this court to be considered felonies if committed in New York (People v. Caracelli, 309 N. Y. 853, 854) and that therefore he is not legally a second felony offender. The fact that he was convicted, by the same court, upon his plea of guilt of the crime of fornication — based upon a single incident, involving the same woman — is claimed to obliterate the effect of the convictions of the [461] rape, and the assault with intent to commit it, as felonies, it being contended that the crimes of fornication vis-a-vis the crimes of rape and assault with intent to commit rape are mutually exclusive.

The essence of the argument is that under Pennsylvania law, adultery or fornication is consensual sexual intercourse, so that the yielding of consent was necessarily adjudicated by the court when it accepted defendant’s guilty plea on the fornication charge and entered a judgment thereon. However, neither actual nor implicit “ consent ” appears within the framework of the operative facts of record (i.e., the allegations of the Pennsylvania indictments — upon which the defendant was found guilty) and the defendant is limited to those facts (People v. Perkins, 11 N Y 2d 195, 198).

Nowhere in the record does it appear that defendant resisted trial on the crimes alleged in Bill Number 59 on the ground of his prior conviction of the fornication (also a constitutent of the rape) (Commonwealth v. Arner, 149 Pa. 35) and his failure to raise the question, seasonably, operated as a waiver of his right to immunity from any second jeopardy then or now thought to have been involved (Commonwealth v. Gibbs, 167 Pa. Super. 79; Morlan v. United States, 230 F. 2d 30, 32 [C. A., 10th]).

If the trial court in Pennsylvania committed error in finding the defendant guilty as charged on Bill Number 59, which is the conviction used by the District Attorney here as the prior felony, because his prior plea of guilty to the fornication indictment (Bill No. 60) was a bar to any further prosecution for the same incident, his remedy was to take a direct appeal from the judgment of conviction entered against him thereon. He may not in this State seek to destroy the legal effect of the conviction under that indictment by referring to the contents of another indictment. So long as the judgment of conviction under Bill Number 59 stands of record in the State of Pennsylvania and was not rendered by a court which “ lacked jurisdiction of his person or of the offense charged against him, he may not in this State question its judgment ” (People v. McCullough, 300 N. Y. 107, 110).

I am aware of the fact that in United States ex rel. La Near v. La Vallee (306 F. 2d 417) the court said that since New York provides no method for questioning the validity of an out-of-State conviction that is used as a basis for a sentence under the New York multiple offender statute, the convict is entitled to a hearing in the Federal court on the validity of the foreign conviction and a determination of whether it is a permissible basis for New York’s confining him longer than it otherwise would. [462] However, as I read the opinion in that case it is limited to those situations in which the out-of-Htate conviction is ‘ ‘ constitutionally void Said the court there (pp. 420-421): “ The alleged violation of constitutional right thus being New York’s, and New York having provided no method for questioning an out-state conviction used as basis for multiple-offender sentence, a New York prisoner challenging the validity of such a conviction on constitutional grounds may proceed directly in a Federal court.” (Emphasis supplied.)

Thus viewed, the La Near case is not in conflict with the McCullough case. In the absence of any constitutional infirmity in the Pennsylvania judgment of conviction, upon which the People here rely, the rationale of the McCullough case applies. The defendant must therefore be sentenced as a second felony offender.

Assuming, however, that the plea of guilty to the fornication indictment (Bill No. 60), upon which a judgment of conviction was duly entered, may be considered together with the judgment of conviction entered on Bill Number 59 (the assault and rape indictment), in determining the defendant’s status as a second felony offender, the same result would follow. The reason for that conclusion necessitates a recital of the pertinent facts.

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People v. Hopkins, 38 Misc. 2d 459, 238 N.Y.S.2d 485, 1963 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2247 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1963).

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