Opinion ID: 1212967
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Burden of Proof under 1968 Criminal Code of Georgia.

Text: The trial court charged the jury in the present case: When in a criminal trial the defendant sets up as a defense that he was insane or of unsound mind at the time of the alleged crime, the burden is upon him to establish this defense, not beyond a reasonable doubt, but to the reasonable satisfaction of the jury. In this reflection of Georgia law the burden was placed on the defendant not only of coming forward with evidence in rebuttal of the presumption of sanity, but also of persuading the jury to its reasonable satisfaction that he was in fact irresponsible at the time of the commission of the homicide. As the authorities cited by the majority indicate, this proposition is one long-established in this state. Under the 1968 revised Criminal Code of Georgia, Ga. Code Ann., Title 26, however, I believe it was the intention of the drafters of the Code that the accused would no longer bear the ultimate burden of persuasion in establishing the affirmative defense of insanity. The rights assured by the Code include, under Code Ann. § 26-501, the presumption of innocence and proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt: Every person is presumed innocent until proved guilty. No person shall be convicted of a crime unless each element of such crime is proved beyond a reasonable doubt. As the tentative draft makes clear, when an affirmative defense is raised to a crime, it becomes incumbent on the prosecution to carry the burden of proof as to the non-existence of such defense as well. Affirmative defense, as defined in the tentative draft, means: With regard to any affirmative defense authorized in this Title, unless the State's evidence raises the issue involving the alleged defense, the defendant, to raise the issue, must present evidence thereon, or do so by his unsworn statement. If the issue involved in an affirmative defense is raised by evidence rather than by an unsworn statement of the defendant, then the State must sustain the burden of proving the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as to that issue together with all other elements of the crime. Tentative Draft of the Proposed Criminal Code of Georgia § 26-401 (a). The emphasized portion of the definition of an affirmative defense in the tentative draft was not, however, carried over into the final draft and it is only a matter of speculation why this portion was deleted. Several keys contained in the committee notes to the Code, in various writings in legal periodicals on the proposed Code, and in the Code itself, may, on the other hand, shed some light on why this portion was not included in the final draft. In the committee notes, for example, on the chapter of the Code setting out specific affirmative defenses, Code Ann. Chap. 26-9, this is found with regard to § 26-907: The purpose of this proposed section is to make it clear that affirmative defenses are not merely technical ones which, if not raised at a particular state of the proceedings, will be considered as waived. They are defenses which go to the merits of the case. If an affirmative defense goes to the merits of the state's case, then the rights guaranteed the accused under § 26-501, the right to be presumed innocent and the right to be proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, would require without anything further that the burden of proof as to all elements and all issues raised in the defense would be upon the prosecution. Additionally, as the Criminal Law Study Committee Foreword to the present Code specifically points out, the present Criminal Code was based in large measure on the Model Penal Code and on information supplied by the Illinois Drafting Subcommittee writing the Illinois Criminal Code. See Criminal Law Study Committee Foreword, at page 4. Under both the Model Penal Code and the Illinois Criminal Code the burden of proof as to the issue of the affirmative defense is placed squarely upon the prosecution. See Model Penal Code, § 1.13 (Ten. Draft No. 4, 1955), and Illinois Revised Stat. Chap. 38 § 3-2 (1961) together with Committee Comments. See, also, People v. Robinson, 22 Ill. 2d 162 (174 NE2d 820). It is also to be noted at this point that under the tentative draft of the proposed Code the present § 26-606 did not appear. This section was added in the final draft and it provides: Every person is presumed to be of sound mind and discretion but the presumption may be rebutted. Insanity defenses under the Code are affirmative defenses. Such a provision had to be added to allow the state to rely on the presumption of sanity and avoid the burden of producing evidence in all criminal proceedings proving the sanity of the accused when it was not in issue. I believe it is significant, in understanding the intent of the drafters of the Code, that this presumption of sanity was added to the final draft. If the accused is always to have the ultimate burden of persuasion there is no logical reason to provide a presumption of sanity on which the prosecution may rely. It would, under such circumstances, have no utility and appear to be superfluous. In this regard, see Molnar, The Criminal Law Study Committee, 26 Ga. B. J. 32 (1963) with reference to Schwartz, The Model Penal Code: An Invitation to Law Reform, 49 A. B. A. J. 447-449; and Molnar, Criminal Law Revision in Georgia, 15 Mer. L. Rev. 399, 415-422. It also needs to be pointed out that the defense of insanity involves one of the essential elements of a crime and that is the mens rea or criminal intention of the accused. Under the revised Code, the prosecution may rely on a presumption of sanity, Code Ann. § 26-606, on a presumption that the acts of a person are wilful, Code Ann. § 26-603, and that the consequences of an act are intended, Code Ann. § 26-604. It may not rely on these presumptions when the mental capacity of the accused is placed in issue. The Committee Notes to Chap. 26-7 make it clear that: The defense of lack of mental capacity is available to an accused under the Proposed Code, even if due to intoxication, by the application of proposed § 26-601, which defines crime as containing a mental element, and proposed § 26-605, which allows a jury to consider all of the surrounding circumstances in ascertaining the existence or absence of criminal intention. Surely no one would doubt that even if mental capacity is properly raised in defense of a charge it would still be the burden of the state to show the requisite criminal intent. Furthermore, § 26-605 specifies that the question of criminal intent is open to the jury upon a consideration of all the circumstances of the case. It is not couched in terms whereby the jury considers only the evidence of the accused introduced to prove his insanity. Thus, in regard to the 1968 Criminal Code of Georgia, the only acceptable interpretation must be that in most instances the prosecution may rely on the presumption of sanity (to infer the fact of sanity) and need not bear the burden of introducing evidence and of persuasion as to the sanity of the accused in each criminal proceeding; but once the affirmative defense of insanity is raised, i.e., once the accused has come forward with some competent evidence of insanity whereby the mental capacity of the accused is placed in issue, then the state, in order to prove the criminal intent of the accused, must present evidence to prove the sanity of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt.