People v. Hettick

GRAY, C.

—Defendant was convicted of burglary in the first degree, a former conviction of grand larceny was found against him, and he was sentenced to a term' of ten years in the state prison at San Quentin.

When the case was called for trial his attorney suggested a doubt óf the sanity of the defendant and moved the court to submit that question to a jury to be specially impaneled for the purpose under the provisions of sections 3368 and 1369 of the Penal Code. The defendant also offered to present evidence for the purpose of creating a doubt as to defendant’s sanity. The claim of the defense was that there had been no material change in the mental condition of defendant since the commission of the acts upon which the charge of burglary was based, and that his general mental condition had been the same for a period of years prior to the time of the trial, and that he had been of unsound mind during all that time as the result of a fracture of the skull received in his childhood. The judge declined to hear- evidence previous to the defendant being put upon his trial, but suggested that he would listen to the evidence taken at the trial of the case, and whenever a doubt arose in his mind as to defendant’s sanity he would discontinue the trial and impanel another jury to try the question alone of defendant’s sanity. The defendant excepted to the action of the court. The trial on the information against defendant was then had. The evidence as to the burglary was strongly against the defendant and without conflict and left the defendant to rely solely -on the defense of insanity, upon which defense evidence

[427]

was taken as to the actions, conversations, and history of defendant from his birth down to and including the time of the trial. The opinions of many acquaintances of defendant and the testimony of many experts who had examined defendant were also received in evidence at the trial. The trial judge, after listening to all this, announced at the hearing of the motion for new trial, “That he never at any time had the slightest doubt of the sanity of the defendant.” The meaning of section 1368 of the Penal Code evidently is that the doubt therein referred to must exist in the mind of the judge before whom the cause is pending before the court will be authorized to grant a request of the defendant in a criminal case to have the question of his sanity tried before a jury summoned for that exclusive purpose.