State of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent v. John Louis Vaszorich and George Louis Christian Brown…

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed the murder convictions and sentences of Vaszorieh, Brown and Berry, holding that the confessions were voluntary, the jury instructions on reasonable doubt were adequate, the pamphlet given to jurors did not warrant a mistrial, the night trial sessions did not prejudice the defendants, and the jurors' poll answers, despite not explicitly stating "first degree murder," were sufficient to sustain the verdicts. Justice Wachenfeld, dissenting, argued that the poll deficiencies and the unauthorized pamphlet required reversal.