Brown v. People

• Decision Date: 23 May 1956
• Docket Number: No. 33885,33885
• Citation: Brown v. People, 8 Ill.2d 540, 134 N.E.2d 760 (Ill. 1956)
• Parties: Thomas BROWN, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 760

134 N.E.2d 760

8 Ill.2d 540

Thomas BROWN, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error.

No. 33885.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

May 23, 1956.

Richard M. Orlikoff, Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Latham Castle, Atty. Gen., and John Gutknecht, State's Atty., Chicago (Fred G. Leach, Decatur, Edith A. Strugala Irwin D. Bloch, John T. Gallagher, Rudolph L. Janega, William L. Carlin, and R. James Platt, Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

KLINGBIEL, Justice.

In 1950, plaintiff in error, Thomas Brown, was tried by jury in the criminal court of Cook County and convicted of the crime of burglary. He was sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of not less than four nor more than 20 years. Thereafter he filed a petition for relief under the Post-Conviction Hearing Act, Ill.Rev.Stat.1955, ch. 110, § 101.27, in the trial court in which he charged that in the proceedings which resulted in his conviction, his constitutional rights were violated in several respects.

The court appointed counsel to represent him at his post-conviction hearing and, at the request of counsel, the bill of exceptions from the original trial was transcribed without cost to petitioner. After the attorney had examined the bill of exceptions, he stated to the court at the hearing that in spite of the fact that the petition alleged that the petitioner's constitutional rights were violated in several respects, he had elected to proceed upon only one of these allegations, which was the charge that petitioner was deprived of due process of law in that he was not afforded a sanity hearing at the time of his trial to determine whether he was insane at the time of the trial and at the time of the commission of the crime.

The post-conviction hearing in the trial court proceeded solely upon this issue. Following the hearing, the trial court denied any relief to petitioner who then applied to this court for a writ of error to review said judgment. In the writ of error which was prepared by petitioner's appointed counsel, there was only one assignment of error, namely that the trial court erred in holding that petitioner had not been deprived of his constitutional rights when he was denied a sanity hearing. We allowed a writ of error and appointed counsel to represent petitioner. Briefs were filed and the cause was orally argued and is now before us for decision.

It appears from the evidence at the positconviction hearing, together with the bill of exceptions at the original trial that at the time of the trial petitioner was 26 years old. Since he was without funds to employ counsel, the court appointed counsel to represent him. Neither petitioner nor his appointed counsel made any motion prior to trial for a sanity hearing, and the cause proceeded to trial before a jury. The State introduced its evidence in chief and rested. Thereafter petitioner took the witness stand in his own defense and denied that he had committed the crime. At the close of the first day of the trial, the taking of evidence was not completed and the cause was adjourned until the following morning. When court convened the next day, petitioner's counsel stated to the court that his observation of the defendant led him to believe that the defendant was not in his right mind and was unable to cooperate with counsel. At that time the attorney moved that the trial be adjourned so that the defendant could be examined by a psychiatrist. This motion was denied by the court, who stated that the defendant would be provided a sanity examination but not at that time. The defendant was then placed on the witness stand again and the State resumed its cross-exmination. Thereafter the State proceeded with its rebuttal evidence and the cause was submitted to the jury who returned a verdict of guilty. Defendant's counsel made a motion for a new trial which was denied without argument. He then made a motion in arrest of judgment and also moved again that defendant be afforded a psychiatric examination before sentence. The matter was continued for several days for sentencing and at the time petitioner's counsel again renewed his motion for a psychiatric examination which was again denied, the court stating that he did not believe that the defendant was crazy and that a psychiatric examination would be entirely unnecessary.

At the post-conviction hearing, petitioner's counsel testified and explained his reasons for desiring such an examination in the midst of the trial. He stated that prior to the trial he had several conversations with petitioner and that petitioner was always able to make coherent answers to his questions and that he gave no indication that he was of unsound mind. When he put the defendant on the witness stand, the story that the defendant told was entirely different from the story that he had told his attorney prior to trial. Furthermore, the attorney testified that when he talked to petitioner on the morning of the second day of the trial, petitioner was unable to cooperate with him. The trial judge at the post-conviction hearing held that in view of the fact that petitioner's request for a sanity hearing was not made until after the trial was underway, the request came too late. In his oral remarks at the time of his denial of the petition, the trial court stated that he was relying upon the case of People v. Hart, 333 Ill. 169, 164 N.E. 156.

We are of the opinion that the Hart case does not require such a result in the instant case. In the Hart case, the defendant was tried by jury for the crime of robbery. After hearing the testimony the jury returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty and also finding that since the commission of the crime he had become insane and was insane at the time of the trial. No motion had ever been made by defendant or his counsel for a psychiatric examination and there was never any intimation in the record that defendant was insane. We held that under those circumstances the verdict of the jury finding him insane at the time of the trial was not responsive to any issue submitted to the jury and held that the portion of the verdict which found him insane was void,...