Opinion ID: 1437042
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the sanity trial

Text: Defendant first argues that the court erred in the second sanity trial in denying a defense motion for a directed verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. The contention is that the People put on no evidence initially and only produced its psychiatric expert offering the opinion that defendant was sane after the defendant had testified on his own behalf and had offered his own psychiatric evidence on his plea of insanity. In so doing the district attorney announced that he was initially relying solely on the presumption of sanity of the defendant. The psychiatric evidence of sanity was produced on rebuttal. We perceive no error in the proceedings herein. The case differs from People ex rel. Juhan, supra, in that there was no question in this case about the burden of proof but only of the order in which the proof was presented. The order in which the proof comes before the jury is discretionary with the court. There is no requirement that the prosecution initially produce its experts in its case in chief. The presumption of sanity will operate until some evidence to the contrary is presented. Palmer v. People, 162 Colo. 92, 424 P.2d 766 (1967); Henderson v. People, 156 Colo. 229, 397 P.2d 872 (1965); Mundy v. People, 105 Colo. 547, 100 P.2d 584 (1940); Arridy v. People, 103 Colo. 29, 82 P.2d 757 (1938); Graham v. People, 95 Colo. 544, 38 P.2d 87 (1934); Ingles v. People, 90 Colo. 51, 6 P.2d 455 (1931). Defendant's other argument directed to the sanity trial is a contention that the court committed prejudicial error by instructing the jury specifically concerning the test of defendant's credibility as a witness while a general instruction on the credibility of witnesses was also given. We have dealt with this question in Hinton v. People, 169 Colo. 545, 458 P.2d 611 (1969), and call attention to Fernandez v. People, Colo., 490 P.2d 690, announced this date on the same point.