5 Conn. Cir. Ct. 516 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1969
On December 20, 1967, the defendant was convicted of the crime of breach of the peace (General Statutes § 53-174) after a nonjury trial and was sentenced to a term of one year in the state jail, execution to be suspended after sixty days, and he was placed on probation for a period of two years. At the trial, he was represented by privately retained counsel.
The right of direct appellate review in criminal convictions is of relatively recent origin. See Carroll v. United States, 354 U.S. 394, 400, n.9. “An appeal from a judgment of conviction is not a matter of absolute right, independently of constitutional or statutory provisions allowing such an appeal. A review by an appellate court of the final judgment in a criminal case, however grave the offence of which the accused is convicted, was not at common law and is not now a necessary element of due process of law. It is wholly within the discretion of the State to allow or not to allow such a review.” McKane v. Durston, 153 U.S. 684, 687; see Reetz v. Michigan, 188 U.S. 505, 508. “Thus, it is now settled that due process of law does not require a State to afford review of criminal judgments.” Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 21 (concurring opinion). Where, however, a state does grant appellate review from criminal convictions, it may not do so in such a way as to discriminate against criminal defendants on account of their poverty. Id., 18. “It is, therefore, clear that the right of appeal may be accorded by the State to the accused upon such terms as in its
Our Supreme Court has repeatedly said that in this state “[t]he right of appeal is purely statutory and is accorded only if the conditions fixed by statute and the rules of court for taking and prosecuting the appeal are met.” Howarth v. Northcott, 152 Conn. 460, 462; see Kennedy v. Walker, 135 Conn. 262, 266; Maltbie, Conn. App. Proc., p. 514. The right of appeal statute (General Statutes § 51-265) conditions appeals to this court by fixing the time within which an appeal may be taken. It provides a fourteen-day limitation for taking an appeal from the judgment of conviction; it is applied alike to all defendants. See Practice Book § 952; Ide v. Crown Super Market of New Haven, Inc., 23 Conn. Sup. 253, 254, 1 Conn. Cir. Ct. 190, 191; State v. Wilson, 22 Conn. Sup. 345, 346, 1 Conn. Cir. Ct. 19, 20. In Brown v. Allen, supra, the court “squarely held that a state may constitutionally hold a criminal appellant to literal compliance with clearly stated technical requirements for appeal.” United States v. Smith, 306 F.2d 596, 605, cert. denied, 372 U.S. 959.
In this state, “as generally in other jurisdictions, the conditions upon which appeals to courts of
“The courts have uniformly held that the taking of an appeal within the prescribed time is mandatory and jurisdictional.” United States v. Robinson, 361 U.S. 220, 229; see Berman v. United States, 378 U.S. 530 (per curiam) (affirming dismissal of the appeal on the authority of United States v. Robinson, supra); note, 149 A.L.R. 740, supplementing note, 89 A.L.R. 941; 24A C.J.S. 54, Criminal Law, § 1711 (2); Orfield, Criminal Appeals in America, p. 182. “That powerful policy arguments may be made both for and against greater flexibility with respect to the time for the taking of an appeal is indeed evident. But that policy question, involving, as it does, many weighty and conflicting considerations, must be resolved through the rule-making process and not by judicial decision. . . . Whatever may be the proper resolution of the policy question involved, it was beyond the power of the [Circuit] Court ... to resolve it.” United States v. Robinson, supra, 229-30.
The ruling in State v. Allen, 99 N.J. Super. 314, to which our attention has been called as applicable to the case before us, is based upon New Jersey’s Criminal Practice Rules, particularly Rule 3:10A, entitled “Post-Conviction Relief,” and affords little weight as authority under our laws and practice.
The motion for review is denied without prejudice to the right of the defendant in an
In this opinion Kosicki and DiCenzo, Js., concurred.
Under Practice Book § 954, “[t]he judge who presided at the trial may, for good cause shown, extend the time for filing the appeal . . . , provided a motion for extension of time is filed and served upon the adverse party before the time for filing the appeal . . . has expired.” (Italics supplied.)
Mr. Justice Whittaker added the following footnote in the Robinson case (361 U.S. 220, 230 n.14): “The allowance of an appeal months or years after expiration of the prescribed time seems unnecessary for the accomplishment of substantial justice, for there are a number of collateral remedies available to redress denial of basic rights. . . .” In State v. Brown, 157 Conn. 398, the defendant