Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-07-15
1O2d Year. No. 1876.
Death Sentence
Upset in Staying
Of DC. Grocer
insanity Test Hit
By Appeals Court in
Honikmun Murder

Honikmon Murder
In the second opinion this
month striking at long-accepted
tests for criminal insanity, the
U. S. Court of Appeals today re-
versed the death sentence con-
viction of the slayer of a WASH
ington grocer.
The court ruled that District
Judge Henry A. Schweinhaut had
enormously instructed the jury
as to the mental defense of Will
lie Lee Stewart, 80, colored,
charged with the fatal shooting
of Harry Honikman, '65, in his
grocery at 723 East Capitol street,
March IL, 1858. A retrial was
ordered for Stewart, sentenced to
die October 16.
The opinion was written by
Judge David L. Bazelon and
concurred in by Judges George
Washington and Henry w.
Edgerton.
Similar Ruling July /.
Judge Bazelon also wrote a
precedent-shattering opinion
handed down July l in which
new broad standards for assess
ing mental responsibility in
crimes were set up. Judges
Washington and Edgerton also
concurred in that case.
The July l opinion said
judges and juries should con-
slider any mental abnormality
present at the time of the crime
rather than adhere to the pre-
viously established criteria that
Cd the defendant was able to
distinguish right from wrong at
the time of the crime and 90 he
was acting under an irresistible
impulse.
Yesterday United States Attor-
ney Leo A. Rover asked the ap-
pellate courts entire nine-man
benchc to rehear the Monte w.
Durham case which led to the
July l opinion. Mr.. Rover said
the request was made in the in
terest of the public. His opin-
ion said:
''It is of no minimal conse-
quence to the community at
large that a division of this court
has adopted a test of criminal
responsibility that appears to
alter materially our. settled rule
of moral responsibility"
Reappraisal of Tests.
In today's opinion, Judge
Bazelon noted that the court
had undertaken a reappraisal
of the tests of criminal RESPONSE
bility in both the Durham and
Stewart cases. For the purposes
of assisting in this work the
court appointed Attorney Abram
j. Chayes as "friend of the
court"
This reconsideration resulted
in a broadened test. announced
in Durham, which will, of course,
be applicable upon the retrial of
this (the Stewart) case" Judge
Bazelon wrote.
The Durham case reversed a
conviction by Judge Alexander
Holtzoff on HOUSEKEEPING
charges. The appeals court cited
advanced concepts of mental dis
order in ruling that the right
and wrong, and irresistible i'm
pulse theories do not cover the
entire field of conditions under
which a criminal might act
without moral responsibility.
Diminished Responsibility"
Judge Bazelon said that Mr..
Chayes, in advising the court,
had urged adoption of rule
of diminished responsibility to
be applied in capital cases."
Under such a rule, if the
jury found that Cd the accused
suffered from a mental disorder
not amounting to insanity Suf-
ffcient to excuse him from GRIM
inal responsibility under appli-
cable tests, and (2) such mental
disorder deprived him of the
requisite sound memory and dis
cretion' essential for conviction
of first degree murder, it could
convict him of the lesser crime
of second degree murder" the
opinion read.
Judge Bazelon said such a
contention had been rejected by
the appeals court in a previous
murder case and supported by
the Supreme Court, which OBJ
served that "Such a radical de-
parture from common law con-
cepts is more properly a subject
for the exercise of legislative
power or at least for the dis
cretion of the courts of the Dis
trict."
Judge Bazelon said that de-
spits 1.-The force of the considera-
lions presented so persuasively
by the amicus CMr. Chayes), y
the court had concluded that il
should not consider the dimin-
iShed responsibility idea until
we can appraiSe the results OF
the broadened test of criminal
responsibility which we recently
announced in Durham.
"Only upon such an appraisal
will it be possible to determine
whether need for the rule re-
mains the nninjnYa roads