State v. Madden

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

Weintraub, C. J.

George Merritt, Jr., and Gail Madden were convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Appellate Division reversed the convictions and ordered a new trial. We granted the State’s petition for certification. 59 N. J. 287 (1971).

The victim was a police officer, John Y. Gleason. He was stationed at the perimeter of an area in Plainfield, N. J., which had just experienced serious racial rioting. The officer sought to arrest one Bobby Lee Williams, who allegedly had attempted to strike some boys with a…