Bailey v. United States, 13642.
| Decision Date | 13 June 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. 13642.,13642. |
| Citation | 248 F.2d 558,101 US App. DC 236 |
| Parties | Eugene BAILEY, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Mr. James J. Laughlin, Washington, D. C., with whom Mr. Albert J. Ahern, Jr., Washington, D. C. (both appointed by the District Court) was on the brief, for appellant.
Mr. Fred L. McIntyre, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Mr. Oliver Gasch, U. S. Atty., and Messrs. Lewis Carroll and Joel D. Blackwell, Asst. U. S. Attys., were on the brief, for appellee.
Before PRETTYMAN, WILBUR K. MILLER and BURGER, Circuit Judges.
Writ of Certiorari Denied January 6, 1958. See 78 S.Ct. 351.
Appellant was indicted, tried and convicted for murder in the first degree. His trial counsel were appointed by the District Court and voluntarily pursued this appeal, urging reversal for several reasons. They told the District Court and tell us that they have been unable to secure the cooperation of the accused, who insists that he does not desire to live. We have read the entire record.
The facts are simple, uncontested, and can be outlined briefly. Bailey and his wife were separated, being unable to get along with one another. Prior to the fatal date he sought unsuccessfully to see her. In his later statement to the police he said he had inquired of an officer during this period whether his wife had secured a warrant for his arrest. He said he had asked the police to persuade her, in the event she secured a warrant, to request the District Attorney or a judge to have him admitted to a hospital for mental examination because he could not get along with her. A police officer verified this statement. The officer said he had tried unsuccessfully to reach the wife but did not follow up the suggestion of mental observation. He explained that Bailey did not exhibit any abnormal characteristics and that the only reason assigned for mental observation was that he (Bailey) could not get along with his wife.
Bailey, contemplating doing his wife harm, secured a gun on December 3, 1955. Two days later he went to their former apartment, entered, and waited for her. Her son (his stepson) came home, and Bailey tied him up with a rope and put him in a closet, showing him the gun and saying he wanted no "funny business" from him. The boy testified this was about eight-thirty in the evening. A telephone call came, which Bailey permitted the boy to answer, and by it he learned his wife was at her mother's home. He untied the boy and required him to walk with him the six or seven blocks to the grandmother's house. Entering, Bailey asked his wife to accompany him outside, saying he wanted to talk to her. The boy went along as they walked some four or five doors down the street. Bailey asked her a question, and when she answered he shot her. In his statement to the police he said the gun discharged the first time accidentally and that thereupon he became panicky and shot her three times. There was no quarrel and no heated argument. The event was witnessed by the boy and also by the grandmother from the doorway of her home. Bailey went home, changed his clothes, and took a streetcar to the police station. There he laid the gun on the counter and announced that he had shot his wife. He was questioned and told the full story. This was about ten o'clock in the evening. At about eight o'clock the next morning Bailey repeated his account, and it was typed and signed. He was taken before the coroner before noon that day.
Before the trial, upon request of the District Attorney, Bailey was examined twice at the jail by a psychiatrist from the staff at St. Elizabeths Hospital. These examinations were on February 10 and March 16, 1956. He was also sent from the jail to St. Elizabeths, where he was extensively examined by the doctor who had examined him in jail and by another doctor. Those psychiatrists were later called by the court as the court's witnesses at the trial, and they testified they had found no mental disease or defect in Bailey, that his I. Q. was average (98) and his reactions and actions were normal. Both agreed to the possibility of a temporary derangement for a period of time, which might have included the fatal date, but neither would express a firm opinion as to whether or not Bailey had such a condition.
Counsel for the defense pleaded both for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, which they urged as a temporary condition brought on by brooding over a great unhappiness, and also for a verdict no worse than second-degree murder, on the theory there was reasonable doubt as to premeditation. The court instructed with considerable care, notably calling attention to the fact that, the burden of proof being on the Government, a reasonable doubt as to premeditation of murder would require a verdict of second-degree murder rather than of first-degree murder. The court instructed upon the insanity issue, following the formula of the Durham case,1 and specifically calling attention to the rightwrong and irresistible impulse tests as possibly applicable here.
Counsel for appellant press upon us three points. The first is that when, pursuant to cross examination by the prosecutor, the psychiatrists testified concerning Bailey's mental condition after May 3, 1956, when he was admitted to St. Elizabeths Hospital, the specific prohibition in the last sentence of Section 4244, Title 18, of the United States Code was violated. That sentence reads:
"A finding by the judge that the accused is mentally competent to stand trial shall in no way prejudice the accused in a plea of insanity as a defense to the crime charged; such finding shall not be introduced in evidence on that issue nor otherwise be brought to the notice of the jury."2
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