People v. Cossentino

Memorandum. This is an appeal by defendant Cossentino from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County, rendered October 19, 1962, convicting him of murder in the first degree and sentencing him to death, the punishment having been commuted to life imprisonment by the Governor in 1970.

Cossentino and Jean Di Fede were indicted for the first degree murder of the latter’s husband on December 7, 1961. On the tenth day of trial, May 11, 1962, Cossentino’s counsel for the first time requested permission to have his client examined by a psychiatrist, it being stated that the request therefor had…