United States ex rel. Brabson v. Silberglitt

182 F. Supp. 944, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3050
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMarch 31, 1960
StatusPublished

This text of 182 F. Supp. 944 (United States ex rel. Brabson v. Silberglitt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States ex rel. Brabson v. Silberglitt, 182 F. Supp. 944, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3050 (S.D.N.Y. 1960).

Opinion

MacMAHON, District Judge.

This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254. Petitioner, Brabson, is a prisoner of New York State serving a life sentence for murder in the first degree. He was convicted twenty years ago in the Court of General Sessions. He asserts that his conviction resulted from the knowing use of perjury by the prosecution in that the principal witness for the people, an informer named Funicello, testified falsely that he had not been promised special consideration for testifying for the people.

In support of this charge, petitioner relies on the record of his conviction and the fact that, after the conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals, Funieel-lo’s life sentence was commuted to life parole in 1943 by then Governor Dewey. The Governor had acted in part on recommendation of the New York County District Attorney that Funicello be rewarded for his invaluable services to the people in furnishing information and in cooperating with the authorities to bring petitioner and his co-defendants to justice for their vicious crimes.

In the instant proceeding, the Attorney General of the State of New York submitted an affidavit conceding that petitioner has exhausted the remedies available to him for collateral attack upon his conviction under the law of New York. The reply affidavit shows also that eight years ago, in 1952, petitioner unsuccessfully challenged his conviction by a coram nobis proceeding in the Court of General Sessions where he relied on charges which, though broader, included the same charge now leveled.

Petitioner does not contend that the hearing he received on the State coram nobis proceeding was in any way unfair. This alone is sufficient reason for dismissing this petition without a hearing, provided the same issues of fact now raised were considered by the State Court. “As no impropriety is alleged as to this [State Court] hearing, relator has no right to a renewed opportunity to test these same facts.” United States ex rel. Blank v. Jackson, 2 Cir., 1959, 263 F.2d 185. The serious nature of the charge and the extraordinary historical facts surrounding petitioner’s conviction, however, preclude such cursory disposition and call for deeper scrutiny of the record. Napue v. People of State of Illinois, 1959, 360 U.S. 264, 271, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217.

I am satisfied from an independent examination of the voluminous records involved that the petitioner has had his day in Court on the very issues raised here and that his Constitutional rights have been meticulously protected. This is clear from the summary of the historical facts which follows.

On September 14, 1931 three armed men held up a speakeasy at 18 E. 13th Street, Manhattan. They were interrupted by Sergeant Timothy Murphy, who was shot and killed. The murderers fled and for six years their identity was unknown. In June, 1937, Funicello, then serving a life term as a fourth felony offender, told the authorities he had information about the crime and thereafter revealed the identity of the gunmen as Summerfield, Feolo and Brabson, the petitioner. He also named a fourth, Mastrone, as the instigator of the crime. All were arrested and charged with murder.

The first trial in 1938 resulted in a disagreement. A second trial resulted in a conviction for felony murder which the New York Court of Appeals affirmed as to Summerfield, who had confessed, but reversed as to Feolo, petitioner and Mas-trone. People v. Feolo, 1940, 282 N.Y. 276, 26 N.E.2d 256.

Upon the third trial in June, 1940, petitioner, Feolo and Mastrone were convicted. The informer, Funicello, was the chief witness for the prosecution and, as the trial judge put it, “without his testimony there would be no case made out [946]*946against these defendants or any of them.”

Funicello testified that he was a member of the “gang” and was present when the defendants planned the holdup, but had refused to go along because the speakeasy was below the “deadline”. He identified the guns used as having once been among others cached by him behind a panel in his home. The defendants, he swore, came to his apartment immediately after the crime and admitted killing a “cop”. His credibility and status as an accomplice were the central issues on all three trials. He was subjected to skillful and gruelling cross-examination by all defense counsel during which he admitted that he had committed a thousand crimes, was a “rat”, had once committed perjury and was testifying against the defendants, particularly petitioner, out of revenge. He steadfastly denied, however, that he “expected” to have his sentence commuted or to receive any “time off for testifying”.1

The summations of both the prosecution and the defense emphasized that Funicello’s credibility was the pith of the case. Able counsel for the defendants hammered at his credibility with consummate skill. They pointed to evidence that, prior to his testimony, Funi-eello had first been removed by the authorities from Dannemora to less strict Sing Sing, and from there to the Bronx County Jail, where for the past two years he had enjoyed such privileges as frequent visits by relatives. They pointed to his testimony that he ate lunch in the District Attorney’s office during the trial while the jury had to search for a restaurant in the neighborhood. It was obvious, they argued, that this loathsome informer, habitual criminal and avowed avenger had made a deal with the authorities. The prosecutor’s forthright answer to this, during his summation, is set forth in the margin.2 The trial court commented, however, “he may expect every sort of consideration from his testimony, I don’t know what is in the mind of Funicello, and you don’t either, but there is nothing in the record to show that the District Attorney offered him any inducement.”

The trial judge left the issue of Funi-cello’s credibility to the jury on instructions that were fully adequate. It is plain from the testimony, the summations, and the Court’s comments that the trial jury knew of Funicello’s hope for reward. Juries are not so naive as to [947]*947disregard such hopes in weighing the credibility of an informer. Clearly, the trial jury gave due weight to that fact and resolved the issue in favor of Funi-cello’s credibility.'

Funicello’s status as an accomplice was also left to the jury, and since there was no way of telling how the jury had resolved that issue, the Court of Appeals assumed that the jury had found that Funicello was an accomplice. His testimony, therefore, required corroboration under New York law (Code of Grim. Proc. § 399). Reviewing the evidence, the Court of Appeals held in a split opinion (four-to-three) that there was sufficient corroborative evidence to sustain the conviction as to petitioner but not as to the others. People v. Feolo, 1940, 284 N.Y. 381, 385, 31 N.E.2d 496. Later, on recommendation of the New York County District Attorney, petitioner’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Governor.

Twelve years after the affirmance of his conviction, petitioner applied in 1952 for a writ of error coram nobis in the Court of General Sessions, New York County.

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Related

Mooney v. Holohan
294 U.S. 103 (Supreme Court, 1935)
Brown v. Allen
344 U.S. 443 (Supreme Court, 1953)
Napue v. Illinois
360 U.S. 264 (Supreme Court, 1959)
United States v. Aviles
274 F.2d 179 (Second Circuit, 1960)
People v. Feolo
26 N.E.2d 256 (New York Court of Appeals, 1940)
People v. Feolo
31 N.E.2d 496 (New York Court of Appeals, 1940)
People v. Brabson
124 N.E.2d 324 (New York Court of Appeals, 1954)

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Bluebook (online)
182 F. Supp. 944, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3050, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-brabson-v-silberglitt-nysd-1960.