United States v. Valentino
| Decision Date | 25 October 1960 |
| Citation | 283 F.2d 634 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Respondent, v. John VALENTINO, Petitioner-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
John Valentino, petitioner-appellant, pro se.
Dominick L. DiCarlo, Asst. U. S. Atty., Brooklyn, N. Y. (Cornelius W. Wickersham, Jr., U. S. Atty., for the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, N. Y.), for respondent.
Before MEDINA, WATERMAN and MOORE, Circuit Judges.
John Valentino pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York to an indictment charging the passing and possession of counterfeit money and was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of eighteen months on June 9, 1932. He was thereafter sentenced by the Court of General Sessions for the County and State of New York as a fourth felony offender to a term of imprisonment of not less than twenty-five years to life. He is now serving this term of imprisonment in the Attica State Prison in Attica, New York. His petition in the nature of a writ of error coram nobis attacking the judgment in the Eastern District of New York on constitutional grounds was denied without a hearing. His application for leave to appeal to this Court in forma pauperis was also denied by the District Court and he now requests us to grant him leave to prosecute in forma pauperis an appeal to this Court from the order denying his petition below.
We find it unnecessary to set forth in detail the evidence in the record of Valentino's mental condition at the time he pleaded guilty to the counterfeiting charge. He was not only sent to Bellevue Hospital for observation but had been transferred to the Psychiatric Ward of Bellevue Hospital after attempting to commit suicide at the Federal Detention Headquarters in New York and showed signs of mental trouble shortly after his arrival at Atlanta Penitentiary.
We note the statement of the District Court that the "available records are convincing that while the mentality of the defendant in the month of June 1932 was below normal, he was not legally insane and therefore had to be dealt with on that basis." We do not think the test is whether or not Valentino was "legally insane," but rather in the language of 18 U.S.C. § 4244 whether he was after his arrest and prior to the imposition of sentence "presently insane or otherwise so mentally incompetent as to be unable to understand the proceedings against him or properly to assist in his own defense." True it is that § 4244 was enacted by the Congress many years after the imposition of...
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