People v. Pohl

Chief Judge Fuld.

In 1950, the appellant Pohl and a codefendant (Ploss) were jointly indicted and then tired in the Erie County Court for the crime of murder in the first degree. The jury found both guilty of the crime charged, and the court, following the jury’s recommendation of clemency, sentenced each to imprisonment for life.

Both defendants had made oral and written confessions in which each implicated the other in the underlying felony and the homicide. The appellant moved for a separate trial but his application was denied. When the several confessions were offered in evidence at the…