Opinion ID: 297799
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Proceedings in the State Courts

Text: 5 Appellant's first trial on the two count indictment ended in a hung jury; on retrial he was convicted on the first count charging abortional manslaughter and acquitted on the second count charging simple abortion. The conviction was pursuant to the New York Penal Law 1050 (McKinney's Consol. Laws, c. 40, 1944), which was repealed, effective September 1, 1967. Section 1050 provided inter alia that a 6 'person who    uses or employs    any instrument or other means, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of a woman, unless the same is necessary to preserve her life, in the case of the death of the woman    is guilty of manslaughter in the first degree.' 7 Although appellant was represented by counsel at trial, he prosecuted his appeal pro se in the New York Appellate Division, raising for the first time the claim that 1050 was unconstitutional because it interfred with the right of privacy protected by the Fourth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Federal Constitution. 8 While his appeal was pending before the Appellate Division, 1st Department of New York, appellant requested copies of the stenographic minutes of his second trial and the minutes of the testimony of Dr. Siegel, the deputy chief medical examiner, at his first trial. The Appellate Division granted the former request, but denied the second, stating that the minutes of the first trial had not been transcribed. 9 Appellant's conviction was affirmed unanimously by the Appellate Division, without opinion, on September 23, 1969, and the New York Court of Appeals subsequently denied leave to appeal.