People v. Dusablon

Section 1045-a of the Penal Law is not ex post facto, nor was it error to have received nonlegal evidence at the trial determining punishment (People ex rel. Lonschein [Mencher] v. Warden of Queens House of Detention, 15 N Y 2d 663; 43 Misc 2d 109). The former crimes committed by appellants could constitutionally have been considered by a sentencing Judge as germane to probation reports (Williams v. New York, 337 U. S. 241), and, as pointed out in Lonschein, section 1045-a of the Penal Law merely substitutes a jury for a Judge in imposing sentence in this situation. The criminal records of…