THE STATE OF MONTANA, PLAINTIFF AND RESPONDENT, V. MACK KITCHENS, ALIAS HERBERT ABBOTT, ALIAS FRANK PETERSON, ALIAS HARRY HARRINGTON, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT.
No. 9539
Supreme Court of Montana
Submitted June 6, 1955. Decided August 5, 1955.
129 Mont. 331 | 286 P.2d 1079
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE ADAIR, dissents.
Michael J. Whalen, Billings, for appellant.
Mr. Whalen and Mr. Walsh argued orally.
The appellant Kitchens was found guilty of forgery after a trial by jury in the district court for Yellowstone County. From the final judgment sentencing him to imprisonment for five years at hard labor he has appealed.
The information charges in substance that on July 31, 1954, Kitchens feloniously passed a traveller‘s check for $20, which was forged in the name of one C. J. Hanson and drawn in blank on the Bank of America National Trust & Savings Association of San Francisco, California. The plea was not guilty.
The trial took up on November 29, 1954, and concluded with the jury‘s verdict of guilty returned on November 30, 1954. The evidence for the state tends to sustain the charge made. The defense was insanity. The evidence offered to sustain that defense was wholly documentary. The defendant did not take the stand; and so far as the record discloses he took no part in the trial, and in no way recognized his court-appointed counsel, who diligently protected his rights there and has now brought his appeal here, where in his brief before us he has specified twenty-two errors going to the merits of the case.
At the threshold of our review, however, we meet the question whether consistent with
We conclude accordingly that the trial judge was in error in not halting the trial before verdict and judgment and thereupon submitting forthwith on his own motion to another jury the issue whether Kitchens was at the time mentally cоmpetent to understand the proceedings against him and to assist in his defense. For from the record it appears to us with certainty that during the trial in the district court there arose as a matter of law a doubt touching Kitchens’ sanity which required the trial judge himself to act as
But this is not all. On December 2, 1952, the Honorable W. D. Murray, district judge sitting in the United States District Court for Montana, at Butte, likewise after a hearing had and upon the motion of the United States district attorney judicially determined that Kitchens was insanе and so mentally incompetent as to be unable to understand the proceedings taken against him under an indictment pending in that court, or properly to assist in his defense against that indictment, which charged him with some fourteen violations of
While so confined Kitchens sued out a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri before the Honorable Albert A. Ridge, United States
This opinion, which was handed down on May 12, 1953, begins with this significant finding: Petitioner [Kitchens], concededly pеrmanently insane, * * * . From this opinion it appears that the predicate for this finding is a detailed report made by the neuropsychiatric staff of the Federal Medical Center at Springfield, dated February 20, 1953, in which it is recited by way of conclusion that the staff there concurred in the previous diagnosis of petitioner as paranoid schizophrenia and agreed that the patient remained mentally incompetent.
Further in support of his opinion and this finding it appears that Judge Ridge also сonsidered an earlier report of January 26, 1953, by the staff psychiatrist at the Medical Center, a certified copy of which is also in the record brought here from the trial court. Therein by way of conclusion the examining psychiatrist gives this summary of Kitchens’ mental capacity:
* * * he has not recovered or reconstituted from his psychosis. His concept of right and wrong are at gross variance with his society, and he thus does not know right from wrong and cannot comprehend the existing laws and customs. Hе could be able to cooperate with counsel to the extent of relating his story. However, he could not apply his experience towards utilizing proper defense. For example, it would not be his wish to plead [not] guilty because of insanity because he does not believe he is insane, which, in itself, is a symptom of his illness.
These conclusions are abundantly supported by the facts recited in the reports themselves, which detail not only the defendant‘s life almost from birth, but also the abnоrmalities which he has exhibited for years. These facts are much too minute and voluminous for even a summary here. Suffice it that
Further and also from the record we gather that on November 6, 1950, Kitchens was adjudged to be dangerously mentally ill and an insane person by the Superior Court of the State of California for the City and County of San Francisco, and thereupon committed to the State Hospital at Stockton, California. No discharge from this commitment or judgment of restoration to capacity subsequent to this finding appears or is anywhere suggested. Indeed, the only reasonable inference to be drawn from this record is that at the time of Kitchen‘s trial below he was an escapee from this institution to which he had been returned sometime after the hearing before Judge Ridge which we have mentioned.
Opposed to this evidence, which points directly to the conclusion that Kitchens was insane when he was tried under the information here, are two bits of evidence to the contrary. A psychiatrist at the Veterans’ Hospital at Sheridan, Wyoming, where Kitchens had been confined pursuant to his commitment by the Montana court, and which he left on June 17 or 18, 1954, testified for the state in rebuttal that it was his opinion Kitchens at that time was sane and competent. The value and weight of this observation was, however, seriously impaired (1) by the admission of the witness himself on cross examination that sometimes the patients are discharged when they are still psychotic and mentally ill; and (2) by the testimony of the witness Brower for the state, who was a psychiatric social worker at this hospital, that there are patients who are discharged who may not have completely overcome their psychotic state.
Also in rebuttal the state offered the testimony of two lay witnesses of doubtful competency, who as jurors in the course of a trial of the defendant Kitchens in justice court on July 29, 1954, had observed him there. Without objection these witnesses gave their opinions, the one, that Kitchens appeared to be perfectly sane, the other, that he was sane at that time.
By way of preliminary to our discussion of the controlling question of law on this appeal we note that the test of Kitchens’ mental capacity with which we are presently concerned is not the test applicable to determine his guilt or innocence of the crime charged in the information under which he was tried. It is the law of Montana that upon the merits оf that charge the defendant Kitchens is guilty of forgery, if his mental stature at the time it is alleged the crime was committed was sufficient to meet the so-called right-wrong test, which although repudiated in some jurisdictions, Durham v. United States, D. C. Cir., 214 F.2d 862, 869, 876, is yet the law of Montana, State v. Simpson, 109 Mont. 198, 211, 95 Pac. (2d) 761; State v. Narich, 92 Mont. 17, 23-24, 9 Pac. (2d) 477; State v. Leakey, 44 Mont. 354, 370, 120 Pac. 234.
Here, however, the question which answered determines the right of the state to try this defendant for this forgery is exactly the question which confronted Judge Murray on December 2, 1952, in the federal court at Butte, where he found Kitchens then so mentally incompetent as to be unable to understand the proceedings taken against him there, or properly to assist in his own defense.
That is, if during the trial below there was raised a doubt of Kitchens’ mental grasp in this particular,
Also by way of further preliminary we note that there is nothing novel or ambiguous about
In short, the universal rule, which is not peculiar to the Codes of Montana, is that if at the time of his trial below Kitchens was insane, he could not be tried as he was for the forgery with which he is charged. And, if a doubt of his sanity arose at that trial as are the provisions of
It is not of importance in the case before us that some of the facts bearing upon Kitchens’ sanity, which came to the attention of the judge below, were rooted in evidence excluded upon the trial of the issue of Kitchens’ guilt or innocence. The facts and circumstances which raise the statutory doubt need not be technically admissible as evidence at the trial had.
A doubt within the meaning of
This doubt must of course arise in the mind of the judge presiding at the trial before an independent inquiry into the question of the defendant‘s sanity becomes mandatory under the statute. State v. Peterson, 24 Mont. 81, 86, 60 Pac. 809; State v. Howard, 30 Mont. 518, 529, 77 Pac. 50; State v. Schlaps, 78 Mont. 560, 575, 576, 254 Pac. 858. Compare State v. Vettere, 77 Mont. 66, 72, 73, 249 Pac. 666. The question whether
Turning now to the case in hand, with the rule and the reason of these authorities in mind, we see no escape from the conclusion that a doubt did arise as a matter of law under our statute in the course of this trial. The district court and its judge then had no alternative other than to submit the question of Kitchens’ sanity at the time to a jury empaneled under
First, the adjudication on April 21, 1954, by the district court for Cascade County that Kitchens was insane gave
It might have been overcome here by showing a restoration to capacity under
Clearly what is enough to raise a doubt of Kitchens’ sanity may well be something less and different than the evidence necessary to carry the issue thаt he is insane. Compare People v. Vester, supra, 135 Cal. App. at page 227, 26 Pac. (2d) at page 687; Fralick v. State, supra, 25 Ariz. at pages 15, 16, 212 Pac. at page 380. Here we think the presumption of insanity which follows upon Judge Holt‘s finding and commitment, upon Judge Murray‘s finding and commitment, and as well upon the commitment and finding made by Judge Ridge was enough as a matter of law and without resort to other facts appearing in this record to raise the doubt in the mind of the
Secоndly, we think the overwhelming weight as facts before the trial judge of the successive adjudications by four different courts and judges, which this record discloses, i. e., that the defendant Kitchens was insane, could not as a matter of law be ignored. Again we mention the conclusion reached by Judge Ridge as recently as May 12, 1953, that Kitchens was concededly permanently insane, which standing alone as the considered judgment of a court of at least coordinate jurisdiction was sufficient in itself, we think, to raise a doubt of Kitchens’ sanity in the mind of the district court here. Reinforced as that finding was by the separate and successive findings of insanity by the Superior Court at San Francisco, California, by the United States District Court at Butte, and by Judge Holt in Cascade County, we can think of no stronger showing which might be made for any defendant in any case to set in motion the proceedings designed by
We conclude that the weight of these findings, when brought to the attention of the trial court, raised the statutory doubt and moved the discretion vestеd in that court under the statute. The testimony of the witness Eagleton does not alter the case; for it is to be recalled here that at this stage of the inquiry we are concerned only with the preliminary question whether there is reason to doubt Kitchens’ sanity. We are not concerned now with the ultimate inquiry whether the evidence sustains a verdict that he is sane.
Of course these earlier adjudications that Kitchens was insane are not a conclusive answer to the question whether he is compеtent now to be tried under this information in the court below. Thereby that court is not bound to find Kitchens insane; nor thereby is it ousted of jurisdiction to determine this issue for itself. People v. Willard, 150 Cal. 543, 89 Pac. 124; People v. Braswell, 103 Cal. App. 399, 404, 405, 284 Pac. 709; People v. Field, supra, 108 Cal. App. (2d) 496, 500, 501, 238
But where as here four courts in the space of approximately four years before this trial began have found Kitchens insane, including at least one specific finding that the insanity with which he is afflicted is permanent, where the record shows no restoration to capacity either by judicial determination or administrative action, where from that record the inference is irresistible that Kitchens is now a fugitive from the California State Hospital for the insane at Stockton, California, and where it fairly appears also from the record that the federal district court sitting at Butte presently regards Kitchens as a mental incompetent, whom it may not bring to trial upon thе indictment there pending against him, we must conclude that a doubt within the meaning of
For this error the judgment of conviction is reversed and the cause is remanded. If a new trial is to be had under this information, the district court will first make prompt inquiry into Kitchens’ sanity consistent with this opinion and as
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE ADAIR: (specially concurring).
A person cannot be tried, adjudged to punishment, or punished for a public offense while he is insane.
Mack Kitchens is an insane person.
On November 6, 1950, the Superior Court in and for the County and City of San Francisco in the State of California, found and adjudged that Kitchens is dangerously mentally ill, and is an insane person and ordered that he be committed to the State Hospital at Stockton, California.
On December 2, 1952, by judgment that day made, filed and entered in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, Butte Division, United States District Judge W. D. Murray presiding, found that Mack Kitchens is presently insane and that he is so mentally incompetent as to be unable to understand the proceedings against him or to properly assist in his own defense whereupon it adjudged that Kitchens is mentally incompеtent, and it ordered his commitment to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, located at Springfield, Missouri.
On May 12, 1953, by order and judgment that day made, filed and entered in the district court of the United States for the Western District of Missouri, Western Division, United States District Judge Albert A. Ridge presiding, in denying Kitchens’ petition for a writ of habeas corpus said:
Petitioner, concededly permanently insane, is confined in the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri * * *
Petitioner has been in the custody of rеspondent [Dr. Ivan W. Steele, Warden, United States Medical Center, Springfield, Missouri] for a period of six months. It now appears that he probably never will be mentally capable of standing trial on the charges made against him. The Warden of the Medical Center is endeavoring to have the State of California take jur-
isdiction over petitioner. To date, the Warden‘s efforts in that behalf have been in vain. Unless petitioner alleges and establishes by competent evidence before this Court that the state of his domicile, California or Montana, will assume custody of him he is not entitled to presently be released from the Medical Center, so long as the charges made against him are not disposed of according to law, i. e. by a trial on the merits thereof or by way of dismissal as he concededly is insane.
See Kitchens v. Steele, supra, 112 F. Supp. 383, 384.
On April 21, 1954, by order and judgment that day made, filed and entered in the District Court of the Eighth Judicial District of the State of Montana, in and for the County of Cascade, District Judge C. F. Holt presiding, found, ordеred and adjudged:
That the said Mack Kitchens is insane and is so far disordered in his mind as to endanger his health, person and property and the personal safety of citizens and residents of the county and it appearing that commitment to a hospital for mental disease is necessary for safekeeping and treatment, and it appearing that such person is eligible for care or treatment by Veterans’ Administration of the United States Government;
Now, Therefore, It Is Hereby Ordered that the said Mack Kitchens, an insane person, be committed to and confined to the Veterans’ Hospital at Sheridan, Wyoming, pursuant to the provision of
Section 91-4818 , Revised Codes of the State of Montana, 1947, and that any transportation costs incurred in connection with such commitment be paid by the Veterans’ Administration.
Although four separate courts have found and adjudged Kitchens insane and have in each case ordered him committed to a hospital or medical center there to receive medical care and treatment for his illness and mental disorder, which is of a paranoid type, it being apparent that he has long suffered from schizophrenic reaction, yet at no time has any of said committing courts made any order or adjudication that Kitchens has been restored to sanity.
Although the law says that a person so afflicted сannot be * * * adjudged to punishment,
Finally the law says that a person so afflicted cannot be * * * punished for a public offense,
Kitchens was born in the year 1927.
While serving as an enlisted man in the United States Navy he met with an accident wherein he suffered painful injuries including serious injuries to his head which left him mentally upset and disorganized to such an extent that after examination before а twelve-man board he was ordered discharged from the Navy as being unsuitable and unfit for further duty.
Next Kitchens voluntarily enlisted in the United States Air Force but again he was discharged from that branch of the armed forces as being unfit for further military service.
As a person who is eligible for care and treatment by the Veterans’ Administration or other agency of the United States Government, Kitchens should be released from the state prison to which he was illegally committed and delivered into the custody of the sheriff of Cascade County, Montana, to the end that the district court of Cascade County may forthwith inquire into the mental condition of Kitchens, said court having continuing jurisdiction in his case under the express provisions of
Kitchens should not longer be incarcerated in the state prison nor should he be confined in the Yellowstone County jail at Billings for months awaiting a second trial on a charge of having committed a public offense while insane for which he cannot lawfully be tried, adjudged to punishment, or punished.
MR. JUSTICE BOTTOMLY:
I concur in the foregoing specially concurring opinion of Mr. Chief Justice Adair.