Court Opinion

ID: 9460154
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:43:22.791326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:30.439940
License: Public Domain

STATEMENT OF CIRCUIT JUDGE LEVENTHAL AS TO WHY HE HAS NOT VOTED TO GRANT REHEARING EN BANC.
LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge:
Chief Judge Bazelon has prepared an exhaustive statement as to why he would grant rehearing en banc. The issues in this case are not simple, and can be argued both ways. Whether the case *1160should be heard en banc, however, depends on an appraisal of the basic rulings. The fundamental issue is whether appellant Greene was entitled to have the Government prove his sanity beyond a reasonable doubt. Judge Bazelon is quite right in saying that this poses a substantial issue of due process. However, orderly resolution of that issue is furthered if this intermediate appellate court applies the only direct Supreme Court precedent, Leland v. Oregon, 343 U.S. 790, 72 S.Ct. 1002, 96 L.Ed. 1302 (1951), leaving the way open for appellant to apply to the Supreme Court to obtain reconsideration of that precedent, and assessment of its current vitality.
As to the other broad question of equal protection, it should be emphasized that the panel opinion does not, repeat not, hold that a prosecution for U.S.Code crimes will be governed by the new D.C. Code provision shifting the burden to the defendant on the insanity issue.1 Whether some of the panel rulings are discerned by others to be correct, they are arguable,2 and relatively narrow, and do not now warrant en banc consideration.

. The panel holds that assuming the applicable considerations, including the fairness of due process, permit a State to shift to the defendant the burden of showing insanity in a trial for a State offense, the same considerations are applicable when the State (here the District of Columbia) happens to define its criminal offenses in terms of a concomitant intent to violate, or violation of, the criminal laws of another state (or of the Federal Government).

. P.L. 91-358, § 207(6), amending 24 D.C. Code § 301 (j) (1973).