Court Opinion

ID: 9730642
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:19:13.075258+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:07:57.481100
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion
Emmert, J.,
Concurring. — I concur in the majority opinion of my Brother Flanagan, but I think the facts are so unusual that they warrant a concurring opinion. The mental condition of the appellant presented a very difficult problem for the eminent trial judge, and although I believe he was mistaken in the effect of some of the statutes involved, he attempted to handle the situation in an enlightened manner. It is not his fault nor the fault of this court that the statutes leave a gap that should be closed by further remedial legislation. However, courts have no authority to legislate, nor should they ignore the plain mandates of the Constitution in dealing with a hard case, which too often results in the making of bad law.
Appellant was arrested and charged with burglary *405in the first degree. When he was in the Marion County jail he became violent. It was then suggested to the court that he was a person of unsound mind, and after proper hearing, it was determined by the trial court that he did not have sufficient comprehension “to understand the proceedings and make his defense,” and he was committed to the Indiana Colony for the Criminal Insane. He was returned for trial upon restoration to sanity, and a special plea of insanity was interposed in his behalf. The court appointed two experienced psychiatrists to examine appellant. Dr. Philip B. Reed testified in substance that appellant may have suffered from epilepsy, that appellant was dangerous to society and not a safe person to be put at liberty.
On April 28, 1952, the cause was submitted to the trial court, without the intervention of a jury, on the indictment and appellant’s plea of not guilty and the special plea of insanity. On this day the trial was recessed until further order of the court, and on May 3, 1952, further evidence was heard and concluded, and the court took the matter under advisement. On July 12, 1952, the court continued the matter under advisement “so long as defendant remains in the Indiana Epileptic Village, New Castle, Indiana, and complies with their rules and regulations, and judgment withheld under the Minor Statute, as said defendant’s true age is twenty (20) years.” No finding of guilty was entered.
On June 4, 1952, on a petition filed by one Rose Lee Taylor in the Marion Circuit Court, that court found appellant to be an epileptic and ordered him committed to the Indiana Village for Epileptics. On or about September 17, 1952, appellant escaped from that institution and went to the State of Ohio where he was arrested, and then he was returned to Indianapolis.
*406On April 18, 1953, the Criminal Court of Marion County, Division No. 1, caused the appellant to be brought before it, entered a finding that defendant was guilty of burglary in the first degree, and sentenced him to the Indiana Reformatory for a term of not less than ten nor more than twenty years.
Section 12 of Article 1 of the Indiana Constitution provides that “Justice shall be administered freely, and without purchase; completely, and without denial; speedily, and without delay.” This constitutional mandate is based on the solid foundation of the Magna Charta, which by Clause 39 declares “to no one will we sell, deny, or delay right or justice.” In Warner v. State (1924), 194 Ind. 426, 431, 432, 143 N. E. 288, this court held an unreasonable delay in pronouncing judgment upon a plea of guilty made the judgment void for want of jurisdiction, and said “it is the duty of the court upon a plea of guilty or upon a finding or verdict of guilty, to impose sentence at that time unless there is reasonable excuse for delay, which delay must be for a time certain for a definite recognized legal purpose, and that an indefinite postponement of rendering judgment or pronouncing sentence will deprive the court of jurisdiction of the person of the defendant, from which it follows that a subsequent sentence is void. Smith v. State (1919), 188 Ind. 64, 121 N. E. 829, 3 A. L. R. 999; Gray v. State (1886), 107 Ind. 177, 8 N. E. 16; Shaffer v. State (1885), 100 Ind. 365; Smith v. Hess, Sheriff (1884), 91 Ind. 424; People ex rel. Smith v. Allen (1895), 155 Ill. 61, 39 N. E. 568, 41 L. R. A. 473; Commonwealth v. Maloney (1887), 145 Mass. 205, 13 N. E. 482; 25 Am. & Eng. Enc. of Law (2d ed.) 314; Weaver v. People (1876), 33 Mich. 296, 2 Am. Crim. Rep. 552; People v. Barrett (1903), 202 Ill. 287, 67 N. E. 23, 63 L. R. A. 82, 95 Am. St. 230; *407United States v. Wilson (1891) (C. C.), 46 Fed. 748; State ex rel. v. Sapp (1912), 87 Kans. 740, 125 Pac. 78, 42 L. R. A. (N. S.) 249; People v. Kennedy (1885), 58 Mich. 372, 25 N. W. 318; Grundel v. People (1905), 33 Colo. 191, 79 Pac. 1022, 108 Am. St. 75; State v. Hockett (1908), 129 Mo. App. 639, 108 S. W. 599.” A fortiori when there -is an unreasonable delay in a court making a finding, the finding is void. The rights of an accused cannot be prejudiced by the fact that a court neglected to make a finding rather than enter a judgment on a finding made in a reasonable time. Both violate our constitutional mandate above cited.
In my opinion the record here discloses the delay was not due to this mentally defective appellant. He did not institute the proceedings in another court to have himself committed to the Indiana Village for Epileptics. Section 22-2012, Burns’ 1950 Replacement, provides for an adversary proceeding with a hearing and a judgment of commitment to be entered. Section 22-2013 requires a warrant to issue. Section 22-2017 provides in part that, “All persons admitted to the institution shall, until properly discharged from said institution, be under the custody and control of the superintendent; and the superintendent may, subject to such regulations as the trustees see fit to adopt, restrain and discipline any patient in such manner as he may judge is demanded for the welfare of the patient and the proper conduct of the institution.” Section 22-2018 provides that “No person shall be discharged from the said village for epileptics until, in the judgment of the superintendent, the mental and physical condition of the patient justifies it.”
There was no statutory authority for the trial court to proceed under §9-1203, Burns’ 1942 Replacement, since that section only applies where an accused under *40821 years of age has pleaded guilty, which was not the case here. It is not necessary here to discuss the constitutional power of the legislature to empower the courts to enter an indefinite withholding of judgment.
“A trial includes all steps taken in a cause from the time it is submitted for trial until the rendition of final judgment.” State ex rel. Conner v. Pritchard, Judge (1944), 115 Ind. App. 55, 60, 54 N. E. 2d 283. Sections 9-1402 to 9-1404, Burns’ 1942 Replacement, safeguard the rights of an accused to a speedy trial, and Rule 1-13 was not adopted to supersede these sections. The immediate cause for the adoption of the rule was complaint made to this court in a mechanic’s lien action, where after the evidence had been concluded, the trial court kept the matter under advisement more than a year without making any finding and judgment. There is no reason why we cannot take judicial notice of the reason for the rule when we construe it. A trial judge by refusing to make a finding cannot escape the above sections of the criminal code giving an accused a right to an absolute discharge for delay in trying the cause.
As the record now stands before us, the appellant should be returned to the custody of the superintendent of the Indiana Village for Epileptics. If security provisions there are not adequate, 'such are not the responsibility of the judiciary. Jurisdiction of his person is in the State and he is a ward of the State by reason of the commitment as an epileptic. The criminal court cannot have jurisdiction of him at the same time. The judgment sentencing appellant is void, and for that reason it must be reversed.