The Legislature established the State Commission of Investigation in 1969. That same year, when Catena was subpoenaed to testify before it, the Commission offered him
use immunity in order to deny him the right to invoke the
Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. Catena nonetheless invoked the Fifth Amendment approximately eighty times. Catena and another recalcitrant witness,
Angelo Bruno, the boss of the
Philadelphia crime family, were sentenced to indefinite terms of imprisonment until they withdrew their Fifth Amendment objections and answered the Commission's questions. Catena petitioned for a writ of
habeas corpus, arguing that an offer of "use," rather than "transactional," immunity was not enough to strip him of his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions that might tend to incriminate him. The
District Court denied the petition but the
Third Circuit reversed and ordered that the writ of habeas corpus be granted. Before he could be released the
United States Supreme Court intervened by granting the government's petition for stay of the Third Circuit's decision on Catena's appeal and denying both Catena's and Bruno's applications for release on bail pending further appellate review. Both prisoners remained incarcerated. In the meantime, two other witnesses who had also refused to answer the Commission's questions were making these same Fifth Amendment arguments to the Supreme Court on appeal from an adverse decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court. The Supreme Court likewise rejected their claims, holding that an offer of use immunity was enough to force those witnesses to answer questions about their criminal activities. The Supreme Court rejected Catena's Fifth Amendment claims shortly thereafter. Even after he lost his Fifth Amendment challenge Catena continued to argue on remand to the Third Circuit that the statute establishing the Commission was unconstitutional on the further ground that it denied him the right to cross-examine other witnesses or call witnesses of his own. The Third Circuit rejected that argument as well. Catena continued to refuse to answer the Commission's questions after exhausting these constitutional challenges. He stated instead that he would "stay in jail for the rest of my life" and they would have to carry him out "feet first" before he informed on anyone. Catena was not, however, resigned to remaining in prison for the rest of his life; instead he demanded release on the ground that his imprisonment had lost any usefulness as a means of coercing him to answer questions and therefore served only as an unlawful form of punishment without trial. The trial court agreed and ordered him released. The New Jersey Supreme Court, however, disagreed, holding that Catena had not carried his
burden of proof that his imprisonment had lost its coercive impact and had become punitive. It remanded the case to the trial court to allow Catena to present evidence in support of his other claims (1) that the subpoena compelling him to appear before the Committee was based on illegally obtained information and (2) that the questions he refused to answer were derived from unlawful electronic surveillance. When Catena's case came up for hearing before the trial court the court chose to also reconsider whether continued imprisonment of Catena would serve any coercive purpose. The court ruled, based on Catena's age and health, affidavits from Catena and his attorneys, testimony from Catena's wife and daughters, and Catena's steadfast refusal to testify, that Catena's continued imprisonment had become punitive and that he should be released. The New Jersey Supreme Court again reversed the trial court, ruling that the record evidence was still inadequate, mainly because Catena had not presented live testimony from witnesses who could be cross-examined, and remanded the case once again for further proceedings. When Catena's request for release came before the trial court for the third time, Catena, his doctor, and his attorneys testified. The trial court reached the same conclusions as before for the same reasons. The New Jersey Supreme Court, making its own factual findings based on the trial court's evidentiary record, agreed and ordered Catena released. ==Retirement and death==