Court Opinion

ID: 9720965
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:45:36.306658+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:22.385002
License: Public Domain

OTIS, Justice
(dissenting).
I concur in the views expressed by Mr. Justice Yetka. We are here dealing with a “hard and conscientious worker, a gentle, conservative man who rarely, if ever, displayed anger” who became demented in his paranoid conviction that a trivial oversight on the part of his wife would lead to his prosecution.
Where the record discloses behavior as irrational as this, I cannot agree that the defendant is held to the same standard of *475responsibility as a “coldblooded killer for hire.” In my opinion it is unwarranted and unjust to ignore the extraordinary circumstances which drove this defendant to his act of violence totally out of character for a person of his background.
At the very least the facts require confinement in a medical facility for treatment rather than punishment in a penal institution for a minimum of 17 years when the defendant will be almost 80 years of age.
I would grant a new trial in the interests of justice.