People v. McCoy

FOX, J.

Defendant appeals from an order denying his motion to vacate the judgment committing him to the Mendocino State Hospital.

Defendant was charged in May, 1950, with assault with a deadly weapon. He was represented by the public defender and pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. Two psychiatrists were appointed by the court to examine the defendant and report as to his mental condition. The ease was submitted on the transcript of the testimony taken at the preliminary hearing, supplemented by two letters offered by defendant. The doctors filed a written report as to defendant’s mental condition, each stating that in his

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opinion defendant was insane at the time he committed the alleged assault. The court found defendant guilty, but that he was insane at the time of the commission of the offense, and needed medical care. The court issued a commitment ordering the sheriff to deliver defendant into the custody of the superintendent of the Mendocino State Hospital.

In July, 1952, defendant filed in the superior court of Los Angeles County a motion to vacate the judgment and commitment upon the grounds; (1) that only a single trial was had on his plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity; (2) that defendant, on the advice of his attorney, testified against himself at his trial, and consequently was adjudged insane; (3) that the reports of the doctors were unverified and therefore did not constitute legal evidence upon which to judge defendant’s sanity; and (4) that no doctor or witness testified under oath at the trial. It is from the denial of this motion that defendant appeals.

A motion to vacate a judgment is an application for relief in the nature of a writ of error

coram, nobis,

which is a “remedy of narrow scope.”

(People

v.

Kerr,

113 Cal.App.2d 90, 93 [247 P.2d 927].) The writ “is not intended to authorize any court to revise and review its opinions; but only to enable it to recall some adjudication made while some fact existed which, if before the court, would have prevented the rendition of the judgment, and which, without any fault or negligence of the party, was not presented to the court.”