177 N.E. 761 | Ill. | 1931
John Preston was indicted in the circuit court of DuPage county for the murder of Agnes Johnston. A jury found him guilty of the charge and fixed his punishment at death. Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were made and denied and judgment was rendered on the verdict. Preston prosecuted a writ of error from this court, and after a review of the record, the judgment was affirmed and December 12, 1930, was fixed as the day on which he should be executed.People v. Preston,
On December 11, 1930, Mary Preston, the prisoner's mother, filed a verified petition in the circuit court of DuPage county, alleging that since the rendition of the original judgment, her son had become insane and praying that a jury might be impaneled to determine the question of his sanity. The circuit court thereupon entered an order staying Preston's execution and fixing December 18, 1930, as the time for the hearing on the petition. On that day the court appointed Eugene L. McGarry, guardian ad litem for Preston and postponed the hearing until January 2, 1931, The hearing on the petition began at the appointed time and on January 5, 1931, the jury returned a verdict finding that Preston had become lunatic or insane since the entry of the original judgment and sentence of death and that he was lunatic or insane at the time of the impaneling of *13
the jury. The State's attorney made a motion for a new trial and on January 16, 1931, the motion was granted by the court on the ground that the verdict was manifestly and palpably against the weight of the evidence. The second trial followed on April 13, 1931, the jury consisting of seven men and five women, and three days later they returned their verdict finding that Preston had not become insane since the rendition of the original judgment and that he was not insane at the time the jury were impaneled. A motion for a new trial was made in Preston's behalf by his guardian ad litem. During the pendency of this motion, the statute which purported to authorize the selection of women as jurors was declared unconstitutional inPeople v. Barnett,
The guardian ad litem assigns three errors upon the record. In his argument they are reduced to the single contention that the circuit court erred in setting aside the jury's verdict finding that Preston had become insane since the original sentence of death was pronounced and that he was insane at the time the jury were impaneled. This contention is based upon section 13 of the second division of the Criminal Code (Cahill's Stat. 1929, p. 986; Smith's Stat. 1929, p. 1049) which provides: "A person that becomes lunatic or insane after the commission of a crime *14 or misdemeanor shall not be tried for the offense during the continuance of the lunacy or insanity. If, after the verdict of guilty, and before judgment pronounced, such person become lunatic or insane, then no judgment shall be given while such lunacy or insanity shall continue. And if, after judgment and before execution of the sentence, such person become lunatic or insane, then in case the punishment be capital, the execution thereof shall be stayed until the recovery of said person from the insanity or lunacy. In all of these cases, it shall be the duty of the court to impanel a jury to try the question whether the accused be, at the time of impaneling, insane or lunatic."
At common law, criminal proceedings against a person who became insane after he had committed a crime were arrested during the period of his mental incompetency. Holdsworth's statement upon the subject, (8 History of English Law, p. 439) is as follows: "No felony or murder," says Coke, "can be committed without a felonious intent and purpose * * *; butfuriosus non intelligit quid agit, et animo et ratione caret,et non multum distat a brutis, as Bracton saith, and therefore he cannot have a felonious intent." For this reason insanity was a bar either to the institution or the continuance of criminal proceedings. We have seen that it was settled in the mediaeval period that madness, if it existed when the crime was committed, negatived liability. It was further settled in this period that, if a person of sound mind commits a crime and becomes mad before his arraignment, he cannot be arraigned; "and if such person after his plea and before his trial, become of non-sane memory, he shall not be tried; or, if after trial he become of non-sane memory, he shall not receive judgment; or, if after judgment he become of non-sane memory, his execution shall be spared; for were he of sound memory, he might allege somewhat in stay of judgment or execution." Blackstone in his Commentaries (book 4, p. 24) wrote to the same effect: "Also, if a *15 man in his sound memory commits a capital offense, and before arraignment for it he becomes mad, he ought not to be arraigned for it, because he is not able to plead to it with that advice and caution that he ought. And if, after he has pleaded, the prisoner becomes mad, he shall not be tried; for how can he make his defense? If, after he be tried and found guilty, he loses his senses before judgment, judgment shall not be pronounced; and if after judgment he becomes of non-sane memory, execution shall be stayed; for peradventure, says the humanity of the English law, had the prisoner been of sound memory, he might have alleged something in stay of judgment or execution."
The charge is made in the present case that the prisoner became insane after conviction and judgment. The common law, in such a situation, prescribed no particular method for determining the prisoner's sanity or insanity. Upon this subject Blackstone (4 Com. pp. 395, 396) said: "Another cause of regular reprieve is, if the offender becomes non compos between the judgment and the award of execution; for regularly, as was formerly observed, though a man be compos when he commits a capital crime, yet if he becomes non compos after, he shall not be indicted; if after indictment, he shall not be convicted; if after conviction, he shall not receive judgment; if after judgment, he shall not be ordered for execution; for'furiosus solo furore punitur,' and the law knows not but he might have offered some reason, if in his senses, to have stayed these respective proceedings. It is therefore an invariable rule, when any time intervenes between the attainder and the award of execution, to demand of the prisoner what he hath to allege why execution should not be awarded against him; and if he appears to be insane, the judge in his discretion may and ought to reprieve him."
An inquisition to determine the mental condition of a person convicted of crime and under sentence of death, who, it was alleged, had become insane since the rendition of *16
judgment, was, at common law, under the control of the trial court (4 Blackstone's Com. p. 395; Nobles v. Georgia,
It will be observed that section 13 of division 2 of our Criminal Code departs from the common law only in the concluding sentence of the section which provides that, "In all of these cases, it shall be the duty of the court to impanel a jury to try the question whether the accused be, at the time of impaneling, insane or lunatic." The discretion vested in the trial judge by the common law with respect to the manner of conducting the proceeding is withdrawn to the extent that the impaneling of a jury is made mandatory. The particular statute makes no other change, and subject to this modification and in the absence of other applicable statutes, the proceeding must necessarily be conducted according to the course of the common law. All courts of general common law jurisdiction have inherent power to grant new trials. (Rex v. Gough, 2 Dougl. K.B. 791; Rex v. Holt, 5 T. R. 436; Rex v. Atkinson, 5 id. 437; *17 Mills v. Scott,
The trial of the issues whether a person convicted of murder and under sentence of death has since the judgment was rendered, become insane, and at the time of impaneling the jury, is insane, should be conducted, this court declared inPeople v. Geary,
To sustain his contention, however, the plaintiff in error invokes the statement in People v. Geary,
The statement in People v. Geary, supra, that the statute in question only provides for one trial has not been followed by this court. In People v. Scott,
The judgment of the circuit court of DuPage county is affirmed. The clerk of this court is directed to enter an *20 order fixing October 9, 1931, as the time when the original sentence of death entered in the circuit court of DuPage county shall be executed. A certified copy of that order will be furnished by the clerk of this court to the warden of the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet.
Judgment affirmed.