155 N.Y.S. 698 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1915
The People appeal from an order of the Court of Special Sessions of the City of New York, arresting the judgment of that court after convicting the respondent of possessing burglars’ tools, under circumstances evidencing an intent to use them in the commission of a crime.
The only question to be considered on this appeal is whether the Court of Special Sessions is empowered, after an information has been duly filed in that court by the district attorney under section 743 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, to arrest judgment after conviction upon the ground that the proof before the committing magistrate was insufficient to warrant the holding of the defendant to answer.
The Court of Special Sessions of the City of New York except in the parts known as Children’s Courts,
The respondent relies upon People v. Shenk (142 N. Y. Supp. 1081), a decision of the Court of Special Sessions, in which it is held that the court had power on a motion of the defendant to dismiss the information filed by the district attorney upon proof that the evidence before the committing magistrate was insufficient, and could send the proceeding back to him for further proof or dismiss it and discharge the defendant from custody. No statutory authority is claimed for the practice. The decision is unsound; it disregards the provisions of section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which limits the causes for which an indictment may be set aside. The court sought to uphold its conclusion by the cases of People v. Glen (173 N. Y. 395, 399) and People v. Sexton (187 id. 495, 511), where it was held that an accused person has a constitutional right to the dismissal of an indictment upon showing that it was found upon insufficient or illegal evidence, and reasoned that the Court of Special Sessions likewise had the power to set aside an information filed by the district attorney in the discharge of his statutory duty for insufficiency in proof before the committing magistrate. In this conclusion the Court of Special Sessions misapprehended the effect of the cases it cited to sustain its declared conclusion. Both of those cases expressly recognize the right of the Legislature to regulate all matters of procedure in both civil and criminal actions, and, in addition, the principles of law upon which the decisions rest have no application to proceedings before a committing magistrate or before the Court of Special Sessions of the City of New York. They were statutory and may be regulated or abolished by the Legislature without interfering with the constitutional rights of a person charged with the commission of a crime cognizable by such court. The Constitution (Art. 6, § 23) vests the Legislature with the power to confer upon Courts of Special Sessions jurisdiction of offenses of the grade of misdemeanor. No constitutional rights of the accused are involved. The Legislature had the clear right to prescribe the grounds upon which
It is well settled that a motion in arrest of judgment is limited to two grounds: First, that the court has no jurisdiction over the subject of the indictment by reason of its not being within the local jurisdiction of the county, and second, that the facts stated in the indictment do not constitute a crime. (Code Crim. Proc. §§ 323, 331, 467; People v. Cully, supra, and cited cases.) That case also holds that such Code provisions apply to the Court of Special Sessions of the City of New York.
The order must be reversed and the case remitted to the Court of Special Sessions of the City of New York for judgment to be rendered in accordance with law.
Jenks, P. J., Stapleton, Mills and Putnam, JJ., concurred.
Order of the Court of Special Sessions reversed, and case remitted to said court for judgment to be rendered in accordance with law.
Since altered into Children’s Court of the City of New York. (See Laws of 1915, chap. 531, § 6, adding to Laws of 1910, chap. 659, § 34a et seg. — [Rep.