People v. Wengorra

By this appeal we are asked to determine whether a suspended sentence in a foreign State constitutes a conviction under section 1941 of the Penal Law. That section requires mandatory sentence as second or third offenders for persons previously convicted of crimes which amount to felonies here, whether committed here or in another State.

On January 31, 1938, defendant pleaded guilty in the Court of General Sessions of the County of New York to the crime of arson in the third degree. Thereafter, on February 8, 1938, before sentence, an information was filed charging him with being a second…