People v. Maione

The defendants have been convicted of murder in the first degree.

The principal witness for the People was Abraham Reles, a confessed principal in the crime. His account of the commission of the murder was in many particulars in agreement with undisputed testimony of other witnesses in respect of the condition of the body of the deceased and of the circumstances under which it was found by the police. Such independently established external facts had in themselves no tendency to connect any identifiable person with the crime. In his charge to the jury (quoted in the dissenting opinion), the…