Hartford v. United States

• Citation: 362 F.2d 63
• Decision Date: 20 June 1966
• Docket Number: No. 20010.,20010.
• Parties: Robert Henry HARTFORD, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

362 F.2d 63 (1966)

Robert Henry HARTFORD, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 20010.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

May 11, 1966.

Rehearing Denied June 20, 1966.

Wm. S. Hochman, San Francisco, Cal., for appellant.

Wm. P. Copple, U. S. Atty., Morton Sitver, Lawrence Turoff, Asst. U. S. Attys., Phoenix, Ariz., for appellant.

Before HAMLEY, KOELSCH and ELY, Circuit Judges.

HAMLEY, Circuit Judge:

Robert Henry Hartford appeals from a judgment, entered on a jury verdict, convicting him of transmitting obscene matter in the United States mails, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1461 (1964). The obscene matter was a letter postmarked Glendale, Arizona, which Hartford, on September 27, 1963, wrote to a registered nurse with whom he had become acquainted while he was a mental patient at Arizona State Hospital.

After entry of a plea of not guilty, Hartford's court-appointed counsel moved, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4244 (1964) for a judicial determination of defendant's mental competency to stand trial. Granting the motion, the district court appointed two psychiatrists to examine Hartford. They did so and filed reports with the court. A hearing was then held at which the two doctors testified. As a result an order was entered determining that Hartford was mentally competent to stand trial.

Counsel for Hartford thereafter gave written notice that the defense would be that Hartford was "insane or mentally defective" at the time of the commission of the alleged offense. The case then came to trial, the jury was instructed on the defense of insanity, and a verdict of guilty was returned.

The sole question presented on this appeal is whether the implicit jury finding that Hartford was sane in the legal sense at the time he committed the act charged is supported by evidence sufficient to overcome a reasonable doubt.¹

The determination of this question calls for a review of the testimony, having in view certain established principles pertaining to the defense of insanity. A person who is not legally sane at the time the act was committed may not be convicted of a crime for committing that act. In view of the court's instruction, to which no objection was taken, it is the law of this case that one is legally sane if he is mentally competent to distinguish between right and wrong, and to understand the nature of the act he was committing.

In the absence of substantial evidence to the contrary every person is presumed to be sane. Without evidence of insanity, therefore, it is not incumbent upon the prosecution to prove defendant's legal sanity. But once substantial evidence of insanity is received in evidence, the presumption of sanity disappears. The burden is then placed upon the prosecution to prove legal sanity beyond a reasonable doubt, as in the case of any essential element of the crime charged. See Buatte v. United States, 9 Cir., 330 F.2d 342, 345, rehearing denied; 331 F. 2d 848; Buatte v. United States, 9 Cir., 350 F.2d 389, 391.

The jury verdict here represents a finding that Hartford was sane in the legal sense at the time he mailed the letter in question. That finding should not be set aside unless we conclude that reasonable men must necessarily possess a reasonable doubt as to Hartford's sanity at the time indicated. Buatte v. United States, 9 Cir., 350 F.2d 389, 393.

We now turn to a discussion of the evidence pertaining to the question of sanity. The case submitted by the Government consisted of the testimony of two witnesses and the introduction, as an exhibit, of the letter in question. The two witnesses were the registered nurse to whom the letter had been addressed, who testified that she received it, and a postal inspector who testified that Hartford admitted to him that he had sent the letter to the nurse.

During the direct examination of these witnesses, the only testimony possibly relating to the issue of sanity was the postal inspector's statement that Hartford had told him that he, Hartford, thought the contents of the letter were obscene. On cross-examination, the nurse first stated that she was not qualified to say whether Hartford was mentally ill when she saw him at the Arizona State Hospital. Later, she stated that she knew what a paranoid state was, and knew the symptoms of such an illness, and had not observed any bizarre or unusual conduct on the part of Hartford which led her to believe that he had such symptoms. The nurse also testified, on cross examination, that Hartford "seemed all right," but added that because of her limited contact with him she was not qualified to express an opinion as to this.

The defense witnesses were Hartford and Doctors Richard E. H. Duisberg and Carl Breitner, the two psychiatrists who had made reports and testified at the hearing on mental competency to stand trial.

It was brought out during the testimony of the doctors that Hartford had a long history of hospitalization for psychiatric treatment or evaluation for a paranoia psychosis on the subject of sex. The problem had apparently always been the same — the writing of allegedly obscene matter on that subject in the form of letters and poems.² On a dozen or more occasions he had been committed, or returned, to New York State Hospital, the Federal Medical Center at Springfield, Missouri, or Arizona State Hospital. On at least one occasion he had been released from such an institution on a writ of habeas corpus. On eleven occasions he left without authorization. Hartford had been repeatedly picked up by postal inspectors and returned to one or another of these hospitals.

Dr. Duisberg testified that he had examined defendant in 1957 and again in 1964, and had also obtained a fairly comprehensive medical history. On the basis of his examination, considered in the light of the medical history, Dr. Duisberg expressed the opinion that Hartford was suffering from a paranoia psychosis. The doctor explained that persons so affected have persistent, unalterable, systemized delusions which are logical to them; that they are secretive, stubborn, resentful, and totally impervious to reason on the subjects on which they are paranoid; but that as to other subjects, such persons can be quite logical, with reasoning power approaching that of...