Opinion

People v. Levy

  • 15 N.Y.2d 159
  • 256 N.Y.S.2d 793
  • 204 N.E.2d 842
  • 1965 N.Y. LEXIS 1625
Court
New York Court of Appeals
Filed
Feb 4, 1965
Status
Published
Author
Burke
On the bench
Bergan, Burke
Cited by
183 cases
Authority
More cited than 27.1%

Modified by People v. Levy, 15 N.Y.2d 910 (1965)

concluding that burglary is not a crime in which detention is inherent and that the due process analysis of White does not apply

How later courts described this case

  • concluding that burglary is not a crime in which detention is inherent and that the due process analysis of White does not apply
  • acknowledging that a broad definition of kidnapping “could literally overrun several other crimes, notably robbery and rape, and in some circumstances assault, since detention and sometimes confinement, against the will of the victim, frequently accompany these crimes”
  • emphasizing that “[t]he test is not whether the detention was an ‘integral part or essential element’ of the [accompanying offense], but whether it was ‘essentially incidental’ to that offense”
  • a broad definition of kidnapping “could literally overrun several other crimes, notably robbery and rape, and in some circumstances assault, since detention and sometimes confinement, against the will of the victim, frequently accompany these crimes”

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

Burke, J. (dissenting).

“ These crimes had no connection with each other except insofar as the defendant[s] might have believed that [the detention] would give them some insurance against close pursuit ”. (People v. Black, 18 A D 2d 719, 721.) In People v. Hope ( 257 N. Y. 147, 153 ) the complainant had been confined for only about a mile. This court affirmed the conviction for kidnapping. We have also affirmed a conviction for kidnapping where the incident covered only two minutes in People v. Small ( 274 N. Y. 551 ). The statute was designed to provide additional punishment for and thus reduce the usage of the professional criminal practice of detaining the victim of a crime in order to assure the safety of the flight of the criminal by preventing an outcry by the victim and the possibility of pursuit. This decision encourages such a practice.

Chief Judge Desmond and Judges Fuld and Van Voorhis concur with Judge Bergan; Judge Burke dissents and votes to affirm in a memorandum .in which Judges Dye and Scileppi concur.

Judgments accordingly.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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