One cold February night in 1975, John D., Esq., an Albany Law School alumni, got word that his two brothers had been arrested by officers of the Troy Police Department for driving while intoxicated, public intoxication, public lewdness, and a violation of Troy’s open container law. Like any good attorney and brother would do, he arranged for his brothers to be arraigned in the basement of the home of Supreme Court Justice William R. Murray’s at 4:00 A.M. One brother pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless driving, and the other brother pleaded guilty to public intoxication. Justice Murray imposed a fine in both cases but immediately suspended the sentences.
Justice Murray filed the record of the proceeding as an order of the Supreme Court in April, and the District Attorney appealed the order to the Appellate Division. That appeal brought the issue of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court into sharp focus: Could a Supreme Court Justice preside over misdemeanor cases as if he were a local criminal court judge?
In its precedent-setting ruling, subsequently cited by the Court of Appeals, the Appellate Division answered in the affirmative but stated: “Finally, while we have upheld jurisdiction in this case, we do not condone the manner in which this case was handled."
