Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/344/561/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 14:32:00+00:00

Document:
1. A denial of certiorari by this Court (with no statement of reasons therefor) to review a decision of a state supreme court affirming a conviction in a criminal prosecution should be given no weight in subsequent habeas corpus proceedings in a federal court. Brown v. Allen, ante, p. 344 U. S. 443. P. 344 U. S. 565.
2. Petitioner, sentenced to death by a state court for murder, was not denied due process in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment by virtue of his having been allowed to plead guilty without there first having been a formal adjudication of his sanity, in view of the procedure available for subsequently withdrawing the plea of guilty and entering a plea of "not guilty because of insanity." Pp. 344 U. S. 565-567.
3. Petitioner was not denied due process by reason of his having been summarily advised by court-designated counsel at his arraignment to plead "not guilty," since there was ample opportunity later to rectify the error, if there was error, by a hearing on insanity. Pp. 344 U. S. 567-568.
4. It was not the constitutional duty of the State, even upon request, to appoint a psychiatrist to make a pretrial examination into petitioner's sanity. P. 344 U. S. 568.
5. Petitioner's contention that an insane man may not be executed assumes erroneously that he has been found to be insane. The law of Pennsylvania, as announced by the State Supreme Court, protects against execution of the insane. Pp. 344 U. S. 568-569.
6. Upon the record in this case, the Federal District Court, on petitioner's application for habeas corpus, did not err in refusing to hold a plenary hearing for the determination of petitioner's sanity. Pp. 344 U. S. 569-570.
7. As the state trial and appellate court records which were before the District Court show a judicial hearing where, on the plea of guilty, the question of sanity at the time of the commission of the crime was canvassed, petitioner's sentence does not violate due process. P. 344 U. S. 570.
Petitioner, a state prisoner, applied to the District Court for habeas corpus, and his application was dismissed. 96 F.Supp. 100. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 192 F.2d 540. This Court granted certiorari. 343 U.S. 903. Affirmed., p. 344 U. S. 570.
with petitioner's state-named counsel, who had been appointed after arraignment, and a judge of the sentencing court, agreed that a plea of "guilty" would be substituted for the earlier plea of "not guilty." This was done so that the State could present its evidence that the crime was first degree murder, and petitioner's counsel would then have additional time in which to procure out-of-state evidence at State expense to support the contention that petitioner was insane. The State put in its evidence on September 21, 1948. At hearings held on October 28, 1948, and November 5, 1948, defense counsel introduced evidence tending to show that petitioner was insane. The sentencing court was not satisfied by the evidence that petitioner had been insane either at the time of the murder or at any time thereafter, and, on February 4, 1949, sentenced him to death.
he was sentenced to death."
The first point we consider is the question of the effect to be given our denial of certiorari in a habeas corpus case. Both the District Court (96 F.Supp. 100, 105) and the Court of Appeals (192 F.2d 540, 544) concluded that the denial of certiorari in habeas corpus cases means nothing except that certiorari was denied. As the effect of a denial of certiorari was then in doubt, we granted this petition primarily to determine its effect. As this conclusion is spelled out more fully in the opinions in Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443, decided today, the answer is short. Our denial of certiorari in habeas corpus cases is without substantive significance.
plea of guilty so that a plea of 'not guilty because of insanity' could be entered. If the trial court had denied this motion, the defendant could have taken an exception, and, on appeal, this court would have decided whether or not the court in denying the motion had abused its discretion."
opportunity to withdraw the second plea and substitute a plea of "not guilty because of insanity" had petitioner's counsel entertained any doubt of his client's mental competency. 364 Pa. at 113, 71 A.2d at 117. When Pennsylvania furnished petitioner counsel for his arraignment, we cannot say his error in advising a "not guilty" plea made all future proceedings unconstitutional when there was ample opportunity to rectify the error, if any there was, by a hearing on insanity. A claim of denial of due process can hardly be predicated upon the failure of a defense move.
This brings us to petitioner's second point: that the assistance of a psychiatrist was necessary to afford him adequate counsel. The record of the trial court proceedings reveals that, on November 5, 1948, a psychiatrist who had examined petitioner at the court's request testified as to petitioner's sanity at the time of the trial and at the time of the commission of the crime. In addition, on October, 28, 1948, two other psychiatrists were called by the defense to testify as to petitioner's mental competence. On the same day, petitioner's counsel also introduced various reports and letters dealing with his client's mental history. On this evidence, the court determined his sanity. Petitioner further asserts that he should have been given technical pretrial assistance by the State. Although the trial judge testified that defense counsel made no such request, petitioner here states that the trial court refused to appoint a psychiatrist to make a pretrial examination. We cannot say that the State has that duty by constitutional mandate. See McGarty v. O'Brien, 188 F.2d 151, 155. As we have shown, the issue of petitioner's sanity was heard by the trial court. Psychiatrists testified. That suffices.
by the Supreme Court of the State, provides full protection against the execution of the insane.
"It is a principle imbedded in the common law -- and we administer the common law in Pennsylvania -- that no insane person can be tried, sentenced or executed."
"A prisoner convicted of murder and under sentence of death is (like the relator in the instant case) still in the hands of the law, and, in a proper case, the judiciary of the State can intervene by appropriate means to save an insane prisoner from execution. The judiciary has this power both under the statutes and under the common law."
Commonwealth ex rel. Smith v. Ashe, 364 Pa. 93, 116-119, 71 A.2d 107, 118. See Phyle v. Duffy, 334 U. S. 431, and Solesbee v. Balkcom, 339 U. S. 9.
Petitioner's final point is that the United States District Court committed error in refusing to hold a plenary hearing for determination of his sanity. This is refuted by Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443, at 344 U. S. 460-465.
the federal court fail to disclose that the state, in its prosecution, departed from constitutional requirements. That is this case."
On appeal, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania stated that petitioner had been adjudged guilty of murder in the first degree on the former date, September 21, 1948. Commonwealth v. Smith, 362 Pa. 222 at 223, 66 A.2d 764. In its opinion denying the subsequent petition for a writ of habeas corpus, the Pennsylvania court held that "[w]hether this judgment was entered on September 21, 1948, or on February 4, 1949, is unimportant in these proceedings." Commonwealth ex rel. Smith v. Ashe, 364 Pa. 93 at 112, 71 A.2d 107 at 116.
"When counsel for the relator entered a plea of guilty to the indictment, that plea admitted to prisoner's sanity, because no insane person can be guilty of murder. The testimony relating to Smith's mental condition, taken after the plea had been entered, was for the purpose of providing the court with data which it could use in determining the appropriate penalty to be imposed upon the defendant."
Pennsylvania law provides that counsel may ask for a special trial to test his client's sanity at arraignment.
"The same [lunacy commitment] proceedings may be had if any person indicted for an offense shall, upon arraignment, be found to be a lunatic by a jury lawfully impaneled for the purpose or if, upon the trial of any person so indicted, such person shall appear to the jury charged with such indictment to be a lunatic, the court shall direct such findings to be recorded, and may proceed as aforesaid."
19 Purdon's Pa.Stat.Ann. § 1352. Whether such a jury trial at the outset will be granted depends on the discretion of the trial judge. He may defer the inquest and allow the question to be decided by the jury trying the indictment. Webber v. Commonwealth, 119 Pa. 223, 13 A. 427; Commonwealth v. Scovern, 292 Pa. 26, 140 A. 611; Commonwealth v. Cilione, 293 Pa. 208, 142 A. 216; Commonwealth v. Iacobino, 319 Pa. 65, 178 A. 823.
The law of Pennsylvania in the abstract on this controversial subject is clear and unassailable.
"It is a principle embedded in the common law -- and we administer the common law in Pennsylvania -- that no insane person can be tried, sentenced or executed."
Commonwealth ex rel. Smith v. Ashe, 364 Pa. 93, 116, 71 A.2d 107, 118. In view of the fallibilities of human judgment regarding the same body of evidence, it is inevitable that one may be doubtful, and even more than doubtful, whether, in a particular case, a plea of insanity was properly rejected. It is not for this Court to find a want of due process in a conviction for murder sustained by the highest court of the State merely because a finding that the defendant is sane may raise the gravest doubts. But it is our duty under the Fourteenth Amendment to scrutinize the procedure by which the plea of insanity failed, and defendant's life became forfeit. A denial of adequate opportunity to sustain the plea of insanity is a denial of the safeguard of due process in its historical procedural sense which is within the incontrovertible scope of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
540. And I cannot read the opinion of Chief Judge Biggs, id. at 549, without being left with such an unrelievable feeling of disquietude as amounts to a conviction that the accused in this case was deprived of a fair opportunity to establish his insanity. And this not the less so because the deprivation resulted from the tangled web that was woven for the defendant, even if unwittingly, by the courts of Pennsylvania.
of judicial notice. But to allow the victim of this testimony, which, in any event, has been brought into doubt, to go to his death without an opportunity for reassessment, by either State or federal court, of the basis for the rejection of his plea of insanity would constitute a denial of due process no less gross than if the sentence had been imposed without any hearing at all on the issue of sanity.
I need hardly point out that, in a court of equity, causes are disposed of on the facts as they appear at the time of the disposition, and that habeas corpus is certainly to be governed by the rules of fairness enforced in equity. The cause should therefore be remanded to the District Court for disposition of the new matter revealed in the affidavit filed here.
The Court does not reach this issue. Therefore I do not now decide whether this evidence raises a new ground which must first, under principles of exhaustion, be presented in the State courts, or whether the federal court may properly view it simply as new evidence bearing on a claim already exhausted -- that the determination of sanity was inadequate.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 § 1352
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.