Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

9 N.Y.2d 342

People v. Finkelstein

New York Court of Appeals

Decided March 30, 1961

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1961-03-30

Relies on Smith v. People of the State of California

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1961-03-30

How this case has been cited

Cited by 77 later decisions (9 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 1993 · most notably Hamling v. United States (1974), Ginsberg v. New York (1968)

16 federal appellate · 3 district · 39 state decisions — followed in 12 states

3001961197019801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Froessel, J. (dissenting).

¶1I agree entirely with Judge Burke’s construction of the statute, but deem it unnecessary to remand for a new trial. The informations follow the language of the statute so far as pertinent. Defendants moved to dismiss the informations at the end of the People’s case upon the ground that, even if the court should find that the books were obscene, the defendants' could not be convicted for the reason that the People failed to establish scienter on their part, relying on Smith v. California (361 U. S. 147). The court below, after reviewing the evidence, found “as a fact, that the defendants had knowledge of the contents of the books ”, and there was sufficient evidence to support that finding. I would affirm.

¶2Chief Judge Desmond and Judges Dye and Fuld concur with Judge Burke; Judge Van Voorhis dissents and votes to reverse and to dismiss the informations upon the ground that section 1141 of the Penal Law is unconstitutional in an opinion in which Judge Foster concurs; Judge Froessel dissents and votes to affirm in a memorandum.

¶3Judgments reversed and new trials ordered.

/9/ny2d/342 · .json · Public domain