Opinion
November 9, 1982
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Wyoming County, Mattina, J.
Present — Dillon, P.J., Callahan, Denman, Boomer and Schnepp, JJ.
Judgment unanimously reversed and petition dismissed. Memorandum: Special Term erred in granting the application of the petitioner, an inmate serving a life sentence, to marry. Section 79-a Civ. Rights of the Civil Rights Law prohibits marriages by inmates serving sentences of life imprisonment. Nevertheless, petitioner contends that the right to marry is a fundamental right and that section 79-a should be reexamined in view of the recent decision in Zablocki v Redhail ( 434 U.S. 374). We find nothing in the rationale of Zablocki v Redhail ( supra) which would invalidate the continued ban on marriage as an additional punishment for crimes of the most serious nature. Those courts which have heretofore scrutinized the statute have found it to be constitutional in factually similar cases ( Johnson v Rockefeller, 365 F. Supp. 377, affd sub nom. Butler v Wilson, 415 U.S. 953; Muessman v Ward, 95 Misc.2d 478).