People ex rel. Hummel v. Reardon

On December 20, 1905, the relator was convicted of .the misdemeanor of conspiracy at a trial term of the Supreme Court held in the county of New York, and was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment in the Penitentiary and to pay a fine of $500. . On the same day one of the justices of the Supreme Court, upon the application of counsel for the relator, made an order returnable ten days later requiring the district attorney of the county of New York to .show cause why the certificate of reasonable doubt provided for by section 527 of

The right of .appeal is not guarantied by the constitution. ' It only exists when .the legislature has expressly authorized it. People v. Trezza, 125 N. Y. 740 , 26 N. E. 933 ; Matter of Jones, 181 N. Y. 389 , 74 N. E. 226 ; People v. Patrick, 182 N. Y. 131 , 74 N. E. 843 ; People v. Rutherford, 47 App. Div. 209 , 62 N. Y. Supp. 224 ; People v. Dunn, 31 App. Div. 139 , 52 N. Y. Supp, 968 , affirmed 157 N. Y. 528 , 52 N. E. 572 , 43 L. R. A. 247 . “An appeal is not a matter of inherent right; ’•it-‘is-one extended to‘a defendant'by the favor-'of the state.” Gray, J., .in People v. Patrick, supra. As.,an incident to this purely statutory right, which in many cases might otherwise avail him little, the legislature has from time to time enacted measures for a convicted defendant’s liberation on bail pending- the decision of the higher court.

Prior to the Revised Statutes, when there was no statutory right of appeal, the trial court might postpone sentence and certify to the Supreme Court any question as to which it was "in doubt, but whether or not the proceedings.should be reviewed wás.a mattér.wholly within its ’ discretion. The exercise of. this discretion, however, did not, of course, in any way impair its power to’ continue the defendant’s bail until final judgment. The Revised Statutes -provided two methods of review, viz., certiorari before judgment, or writ of error after judgment. On certiorari provision was made for a stay óf execution and the defendant’s admission to bail’. A writ of error operated as a stay, provided the justice who issued it so directed, and in allowing the writ the justice might issue a habeas corpus and admit the .defendant to bail. Either writ could be allowed, stays granted and the defendant enlarged on bail upon ex parte applications and without notice to the district attorney. ‘

It is contended by the appellant that the provisions of the" Code of Criminal Procedure which abolished "writs of error and'uertio’fari and declared that “the only mode of reviewing h. judgment or'order in á criminal action is by appeal” were intended not Only'to correct'the two principal evils of the former system, namely,'the “inconvenience of this

Section. 555 provides for the admission to bail after-conviction for a crime not punishable with death, of a defendant who has appealed “when there is a stay of proceedings, but not otherwise.” Section 556 provides that if the appeal be from a judgment imposing a fine-only the undertaking shall be for the payment of the fine, etc., and if from a judgment of imprisonment that the appellant will surrender himself if the judgment be affirmed or modified, or the appeal be dismissed, “or” (in either case) “if the certificate of reasonable - doubt be vacated” as provided in section 529. Section 585 prescribes the qualifications of bail and a general form of undertaking. Section 527 which is entitled “Stay of Proceedings on Appeal,” etc., provides that an appeal to the Appellate Division “stays the execution of the judgment or other determination” upon filing a certificate of reasonable. doubt with the notice of appeal, “but not otherwise.” Section 529 applies to stays upon appeals to the Court of Appeals, and is not -material to the present inquiry. Section 529 after declaring that the certificate of reasonable doubt cannot be granted until such notice of the application as the judge •may prescribe has been given to the district attorney, accompanied by a specification of the grounds upon which the application is based, provides that the -judge may “stay the execution of the judgment until the determination of such application.” The remaining portion of this section provides that but one application may be made, and that the certificate may be vacated for delay in bringing the appeal-to argument. It thus appears that there is express legislative authority for -the release on bail pending appeal of a convicted defendant “when there is a stay of proceedings, bftt not otherwise,” and for .the granting of a stay of execution (a) pending the determination of the appeal, and (b) pending the determination of an application for a certificate.-of' reasonable doubt. - - —'

While conceding that the stay of execution pending appeal -provided for by, section 527. is a “stay of proceedings” within the meaning of section 555, the learned district attorney argues that the temporary stay of execution provided or by section 529 is not such a “stay of proceedings,” notwithstanding precisely the same form of language is used in both sections; and he bases his argument largely.upon the cir.cumstances that section 556 refers to a certificate of reasonable doubt which, as he contends, renders it meaningless unless bail -is only permissible when such certificate has been first issued. The answer is that section 556 as originally enacted contained no such -reference. The Code provisions for the vacatur of a certificate of .reasonable doubt \yere the result of certain statutory amendments of ..sections 529, 556, '

The district attorney urges in his brief, however, that these very amendments were passed with a view to controlling the abuses following the issuance of indiscriminate stays in criminal cases “by refusing bail pending appeal, unless the defendant, after notice to the district attorney, can convince a judge that there is a reasonable doubt of his guilt.” We do not agree with this view. The amendments in question had no relation to the subject of bail. Their sole purpose was to provide a means, then lacking, whereby tardy appellants at large on recognizances could be summarily dealt with. People v. Lyons, 29 App. Div. 174 , 51 N. Y. Supp. 811 . In the case just cited, in speaking of the frequency with which certificates of reasonable doubt were then granted, the court said:

“The result has been in many cases to create unreasonable delay and to impede the course of justice. Defendants who have obtained stays in such cases have often been tardy in their appeals and the people have found many obstacles thrown in their way in bringing the cases before the appellate courts. To remedy this difficulty the legislature made an amendment to section 529,” etc! .

In this connection it should be noted, as showing that the legislation in question had no bearing on the question, of bail, that the act of 1897 'also makes provision for the dismissal of criminal appeals if the same “be not brought on for argument as promptly after the return has been as the circumstances of the case will reasonably admit.” Code Cr. Proc. § 534, as amended by Laws 1897, p. 569, c. 427. With these provisions of law available to the District Attorney it is difficult to see how the mere fact that án appellant has been released on bail can delay the disposition of the appeal. *

The requirement of notice to the District Attorney and service upon him of a specification of the grounds of the application, before a certificate of reasonable doubt which operates as a stay pending the appeal, can be granted, is not, in the absence of language indicting a contrary intention on the part of the legislature, to be taken as an implied deprivation of the power of the justice to whom • the application is addressed to let the defendant to bail pending the application, when, in the exercise of the power expressly given him by the same section he has stayed the execution of the judgment for the purposes of the application. These requirements serve a useful purpose in preventing the issuance of ex parte stays operative until final judgment, but they do not require the arbitrary imprisonment of a defendant who in good ' faith intends to prosecute an appeal upon grounds which prima facie 'satisfy the judge to whom the-application is' made that there is reasonable doubt whether the conviction should stand; -The supposition that

The district attorney lays some stress upon the fact that the Code while prescribing the form of undertaking to be given where there is a stay pending appeal makes no provision for an undertaking for the defendant’s surrender if his application for such a stay is denied. We regard this as a mere casus omissus. The power to let bail in either case being expressly conferred, the absence of an appropriate statutory form of bond will not prevent the exercise of that power.

. The order should be affirmed.

Order discharging the relator affirmed, with costs.

All concur.