People v. Nadile

29 Misc. 2d 448, 208 N.Y.S.2d 870, 1960 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1974
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 27, 1960
StatusPublished

This text of 29 Misc. 2d 448 (People v. Nadile) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Nadile, 29 Misc. 2d 448, 208 N.Y.S.2d 870, 1960 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1974 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1960).

Opinion

Frank Del Vecchio, J.

On January 17, 1934 Angela C'arlucci, Alfred Giallarenzi and Anthony Nadile were jointly indicted, charged with the crime of murder in the first degree in the killing of Joseph Carlucci, husband of Angela Carlucci, in the Town of Dewitt, a suburb of the City of Syracuse. Mrs. Carlucci was granted immunity by the District Attorney and testified for the prosecution in separate trials of the other two defendants. Giallarenzi was convicted in March, 1934 and sentenced to death; the judgment of conviction was affirmed in People v. Giallarenzi (266 N. Y. 453) and he was executed in January, 1935. Nadile was not apprehended until January 27, 1941 and his trial was held in March of that year. The theory of the prosecution was' that Giallarenzi was Mrs. Carlucci’s lover and that they hired Nadile to kill her husband. The defense was an alibi. Nadile’s conviction on March 27, 1941 was affirmed (287 N. Y. 748) but the Governor commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.

[449]*449In June, 1960 Nadile presented to this court an application for a writ of error coram nobis to set aside the judgment of conviction upon the ground that the indictment had been remitted to County Court and never ordered back to Supreme Court where his trial was held. Since the records disclosed that the indictment had never been remitted to County Court but always remained in Supreme Court, the application was denied without a hearing.

The defendant now applies for a writ of error coram nobis to vacate the judgment of conviction and for an order directing a hearing on the application, upon the claim that his indictment and conviction were procured by the testimony of two witnesses, Traver and Slocum, known by the prosecution to be perjured, thereby denying him due process under both the State and Federal Constitutions.

It is well settled that a conviction procured by the use of perjured testimony known to be such by the prosecutor is a denial of due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and section 6 of article I of the New York State Constitution. (Mooney v. Kolohan, 294 U. S. 103; Pyle v. Kansas, 317 U. S. 213; Matter of Morhous v. Supreme Court, 293 N. Y. 131.) The New York Court of Appeals has stated that in these circumstances the post-conviction relief is by way of writ of error coram nobis (People v. Sadness, 300 N. Y. 69, 73). The same court has repeatedly held that when a coram nobis petition alleges facts which if true would entitle petitioner to relief, there must be a trial of those allegations, unless their falsity is conclusively demonstrated by unequivocal documentary proof (People v. Richetti, 302 N. Y. 290, 296; People v. Picciotti, 4 N Y 2d 340, 344-345); but when the record conclusively demonstrates the falsity of the allegations and that there is no reasonable probability at all that defendant’s averments are true, a hearing will be denied. (People v. Guariglia, 303 N. Y. 338, 343; People v. White, 309 N. Y. 636.)

Liberal as the Court of Appeals has been in safeguarding the right of a defendant to invoke the inherent power of a court to correct its own judgment of conviction (see People v. Richetti, supra; People v. Langan, 303 N. Y. 474), it has nevertheless made clear that the right to appear in open court and be heard does not attach, automatically, to every application in the nature of a coram nobis proceeding. In the language of Judge Burke, writing for the court in People v. White (supra, pp. 640-641):

“We said in People v. Richetti (302 N. Y. 290, 298): ‘A presumption of regularity exists only until contrary substantial [450]*450evidence appears (People ex rel. Wallington Apts. v. Miller, 288 N. Y. 31, 33; Galpin v. Page, 18 Wall. [U. S.] 350, 365; 9 Wigmore on Evidence [3d ed.], § 2491).’ Charges made in coram nobis are subject to the criteria relied upon in all causes to determine where the truth lies. Bare allegations not confirmed by the recorded facts and contrary to the conduct of the defendant and his attorney, are insufficient in law to warrant the granting of a hearing. The defendant is not entitled to a hearing on charges lacking factual support. Due process does not require a court to accept every sworn allegation as true. Many sworn allegations are palpably untrue, not improbable or unbelievable, but untrue. * * *

“ The test is whether there is, as a matter of law, a dispute of fact which entitles the defendant to a hearing. (People v. Richetti, 302 N. Y. 290, supra; Rice v. Olson, 324 U. S. 786.) We have stated 1 that Federal due process requires no trial if the State courts be convinced, on the record, that there is no reasonable probability at all, that defendant’s averments are true. ’ (People v. Richetti, supra, pp. 295-296.) ”

With this statement in mind it is appropriate now to examine the application made by defendant.

The moving papers consist of a verified petition in which defendant discusses at length the testimony of Traver, Slocum and Carlucci, pointing out what he regards as inconsistencies and improbabilities in the evidence of the two former witnesses who identified defendant in a parked car on Grand View Road shortly before the murder. To bolster his argument that they committed perjury, Nadile refers to an unidentified sketch map, drawn by defendant for all that appears, and to two letters dated September, 1960 received by him from the membership manager of the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, one stating that “ According to the references contacted * * * Grand View did not exist ” in 1933, the other referring to the weather conditions on the day of the crime. He claims this is ‘ ‘ new evidence ’ ’ which must be refuted by unquestionable documentary evidence to deny a hearing on his application.

The petition alleges that Carlucci, an accomplice, testified that on the afternoon before the homicide she and Giallarenzi sat in the rear seat of an automobile which had been driven by Nadile from Syracuse to a dead-end side road and parked a short distance from Thompson Road facing Thompson Road; that while so parked they discussed how and where Nadile would kill her husband later that night. The record shows she also testified that while there she saw only one car turn off Thompson Road into the road they were on and slowly pass their car. Nadile [451]*451claims that There is no corroboration of the conspiracy to commit the crime, no proof of premeditation and no proof that Tony Nadile was in Syracuse on the day of the crime ” without the perjured testimony of Traver and Slocum, who testified they had been in the passing car and identified defendant as the man behind the wheel in the car parked on Grand View Road.

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Related

Mooney v. Holohan
294 U.S. 103 (Supreme Court, 1935)
Pyle v. Kansas
317 U.S. 213 (Supreme Court, 1942)
Rice v. Olson
324 U.S. 786 (Supreme Court, 1945)
People v. Fanning
89 N.E.2d 881 (New York Court of Appeals, 1949)
People Ex Rel. Wallington Apartments, Inc. v. Miller
41 N.E.2d 445 (New York Court of Appeals, 1942)
People v. Sadness
89 N.E.2d 188 (New York Court of Appeals, 1949)
Matter of Morhous v. N.Y. Supreme Court
56 N.E.2d 79 (New York Court of Appeals, 1944)
People v. . Gaimari
68 N.E. 112 (New York Court of Appeals, 1903)
People v. Nadile
40 N.E.2d 36 (New York Court of Appeals, 1942)
Lee v. City Brewing Corporation
18 N.E.2d 628 (New York Court of Appeals, 1939)
People v. Giallarenzi
195 N.E. 150 (New York Court of Appeals, 1934)
People v. Wurzler
280 A.D. 1020 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1952)
People v. Oddo
90 N.E.2d 896 (New York Court of Appeals, 1950)
People v. Richetti
97 N.E.2d 908 (New York Court of Appeals, 1951)
People v. Guariglia
102 N.E.2d 580 (New York Court of Appeals, 1951)
People v. Langan
104 N.E.2d 861 (New York Court of Appeals, 1952)
People v. White
132 N.E.2d 880 (New York Court of Appeals, 1956)
People v. Whitman
185 Misc. 459 (New York Court of General Session of the Peace, 1945)
People v. Grattop
192 Misc. 667 (New York County Courts, 1948)

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Bluebook (online)
29 Misc. 2d 448, 208 N.Y.S.2d 870, 1960 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1974, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-nadile-nysupct-1960.