229 A.D. 687 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1930
This is an appeal from an order in habeas corpus discharging the relator from custody as an inmate of the Institution for Male Defective Delinquents at Napanoch, N. Y. In 1924, after indictment for the crime of burglary, third degree, and after a plea of guilty, the relator was examined by two qualified examiners and found to be a mental defective and was committed to Napanoch by the Court of General Sessions in New York county. About a year later he was released on parole. In April, 1927, he was tried and convicted of the crime of unlawful entry and sentenced to a penitentiary. Upon his release from the penitentiary in December, 1927, he was returned to Napanoch on a warrant from that institution as a parole violator. He remained at Napanoch without further parole until October, 1929, when he was discharged therefrom by a Supreme Court justice" in this habeas corpus proceeding on the ground that the relator was illegally detained and restrained of his liberty without an order of retention or recommitment and on the further ground that the relator is not now a mental defective. The appeal is from that order.
Article 17 of the Correction Law (originally enacted as Prison Law and changed and amended generally by Laws of 1929, chap. 243) makes comprehensive provision for the commitment, care and custody of mental defective delinquents at this institution at Napanoch, N. Y., and for their parole and release therefrom. (Correction Law, §§ 430-447.) Section 438 provides that a male
Moreover, we think there is no adequate basis for the finding that the relator is not now a mental defective. Such finding is against the evidence, which, under the statute, includes the case record of the relator as well as the testimony of the superintendent. The learned justice, after a brief oral examination of the relator, and unaided by any expert opinion, has reached a conclusion directly opposed to that of the trained experts of the State. In such a habeas corpus proceeding involving the custody of these mental defective delinquents, a judge ought to disregard the opinions of these experts in mental defects with great caution. It is a matter
The order should be reversed and the relator remanded to the custody of the superintendent of said institution at Napanoch, N. Y.
Davis, Whitmyer, Hill and Hasbrouck, JJ., concur.
Order reversed on the law and relator remanded to the custody of the superintendent of the Institution for Male Defective Delin-
quents, Napanoch, N.