Cole v. State

• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: Before BARKDULL; PER CURIAM
• Citation: Cole v. State, 172 So.2d 898 (Fla. App. 1965)
• Decision Date: 09 March 1965
• Docket Number: No. 64-243,64-243
• Parties: Joseph COLE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Page 898

172 So.2d 898

Joseph COLE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 64-243.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

March 9, 1965.

Rehearing Denied April 7, 1965.

Ellis S. Rubin, Miami Beach, for appellant.

Earl Faircloth, Atty. Gen., and Arden Siegendorf, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Before BARKDULL, C. J., and CARROLL and HENDRY, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Appellant was informed against, tried and convicted of receiving and of concealing stolen property. His defense hinged on a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. On the trial, which was before the court without a jury, the issue of insanity was required to be decided by the judge as the trier of the facts. The evidence, though in conflict, furnished adequate support for the trial judge's rejection of the insanity defense, and appellant has failed to show ground to disturb the trial court's decision on that issue.

In determining the cause the trial court proceeded on the 'right or wrong' test of the 'rule in M'Naghten's Case.' Counsel for appellant now urges that we abandon that test in favor of the 'irresistible impulse' or 'moral insanity' test adopted by the Supreme Court in the State of New Hampshire. We refuse that request, as did the Supreme Court of Florida when similarly importunded in the case of Piccott v. State, Fla.1960, 116 So.2d 626, 627, where the Court said:

'Defendant's principal argument before us is directed to a plea that this Court should abandon the 'right or wrong' test or the 'Rule in M'Naghten's Case' in measuring responsibility of one for criminal acts where the defense of insanity is made, in favor of the 'irresistible impulse' or 'moral insanity' test adopted by the Supreme Court of New Hampshire in State v. Pike, ...