Court Opinion

ID: 9455621
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:27:32.717118+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:39.828720
License: Public Domain

CHAMBERS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
If we were going to see a psychiatrist, I am sure he would not let us bring our own couches along. When the psychiatrists come over to see us officially and testify, there is no valid reason I can see that they should not do business on our terms, to wit: the M’Naghten rule. And, there have usually been enough of them willing to use it. But now we bend our knee to them.
We live in a time when any change is presumed to be good. But all change is not good. Here it is not contended that if we use the A.L.I. rule some will be convicted who have not hitherto been convicted and that others will go free. And, it is not contended that exactly the same people will be convicted or that more will be convicted. The only possible consequence is that a lesser number will be convicted. Probably only a few will go free because of the change we now make. But those few, almost always associated with violent crimes, we shall put out on the streets, already unsafe enough. This is no time in American history to join this parade of psychedelic logic.
If Mr. Wade, the bank robber, is to be tested by less than M’Naghten, I would let the Congress require it.
KILKENNY, Circuit Judge, with whom JAMES M. CARTER, Circuit Judge, joins, dissenting:
While I do not believe there is a valid, logical or worthwhile distinction between the ALI Rule, so eloquently proposed by the majority, and the M’Naghten Rule, so ably defended by the minority, I cannot subscribe to even limited retroactivity as proposed by the majority. We should not change the rules after the game is over. To require new trials in cases already decided, merely to give status to a previously unacceptable rule is, as I see it, going far beyond a permissible judicial function.