CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-DUE PROCESS-USE OF EXTRANEOUS EVIDENCE IN DETERMINING CRIMINAL SENTENCE

Petitioner was convicted of murder in the first degree with a recommendation for life imprisonment. In reliance on police and probation reports showing petitioner's background which included over thirty burglaries for which he had never been arraigned and a "morbid sexuality," the trial judge disregarded the jury's recommendation and imposed the death sentence. Although petitioner did not have an opportunity to examine the reports prior to the sentence hearing, he was represented by counsel at the hearing and did not challenge them at that time. Petitioner contended that he had been denied due process of law because his sentence had not been based on information supplied by witnesses with whom he could be confronted.

Held, due process was not violated because extraneous evidence was used to assist the judge in imposing sentence. Justices Murphy and Rutledge dissented. Williams v. People of State of New York, (U.S. 1949) 69 S.Ct. 1079.