Commonwealth ex rel. Mulligan v. Smith
| Decision Date | 25 January 1945 |
| Parties | Commonwealth ex rel. Mulligan v. Smith. Warden |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Petition for writ of habeas corpus. Original jurisdiction No. 327 Misc. Docket No. 5, in case of Commonwealth ex rel Charles Mulligan, v. Herbert Smith, Warden, Eastern State Penitentiary.
We have given this petition for writ of habeas corpus earnest and careful attention.
The point involved is whether a convict, serving a sentence for burglary in a county jail, who, on petition of the warden, is committed as an insane criminal to a State Hospital for the Insane, after an examination by two physicians appointed by the court, under the Mental Health Act of July 11, 1923, P. L. 998, (sec. 308), and who escapes from said hospital, can be legally sentenced to the penitentiary on pleading guilty to crimes committed in another county while thus at large, if on his arraignment and sentence he shows no signs of insanity or a disordered mind, and raises no question as to his sanity, and since his incarceration in the penitentiary has exhibited no signs or symptoms of mental disorder. Our opinion, after due consideration, is that he can.
Relator has a long criminal record. Since 1903 he has spent some 33 years of his life in penal institutions; but for the purpose of this petition it is unnecessary to go further back than 1924.
On November 13, 1924 he pleaded guilty to a 'district attorney's bill' in the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Montgomery County to No. 95 November Sessions, 1924, charging burglary and larceny, and was sentenced the same day to imprisonment in the Montgomery County prison for not more than eight years nor less than four years, to be computed from that date.
On June 4, 1926 the warden of the county prison filed a petition asking for an inquiry into the prisoner's condition under the Mental Health Act of July 11, 1923, P. L. 998, and the court, pursuant to section 308 of said act, forthwith ordered an inquiry by two qualified physicians, who examined the prisoner on June 8 and 9, 1926 and reported to the court that he was insane and in such condition as to make it necessary that he be cared for in a hospital for mental diseases. On June 14, 1926, the report was approved by the court and the prisoner was found to be of a criminal tendency and he was ordered to be committed to the State Hospital for the Criminal Insane. He was, in fact, sent to the State Hospital for the Insane at Norristown. It does not appear why he was sent there instead of to the State Hospital for the Criminal Insane at Farview.
On October 12, 1926, after being confined in the prison and hospital for one year and eleven months he escaped from the hospital.
On November 22, 1926 he pleaded guilty to three indictments in the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Northampton County, Nos. 69, 71 and 76 September Term 1926, charging burglary, and was sentenced to the Eastern State Penitentiary for a term of not less than five years and not more than ten years on each bill, the sentences to run consecutively.
There is no record that at the time of his arraignment, pleas and sentences on said indictment he showed any signs of insanity or mental weakness, nor does it appear that he informed the court of his commitment to the State Hospital for the Insane at Norristown and his escape therefrom.
The Court of Montgomery County had been notified by the Superintendent of the Hospital on October 1, 1926 that the 'subject' [i. e. the prisoner] had been presented "to the entire medical staff for a thorough medical examination and the results of the examination show that Charles Mulligan, alias Stanley Thomas, no longer needs the remedial or custodial care of the Norristown State Hospital", and the Superintendent had requested a court order to transfer the subject back to the county jail to which the court replied that the proper procedure would be for the hospital to file a petition for a rule on the warden to show cause why the 'subject' should not be returned to the county jail. Before this could be done, the 'subject' escaped.
After Mulligan's escape and apprehension, but before his arraignment and sentence, the Superintendent, on November 18, 1926 wrote to the President Judge of the Montgomery County Court telling of the 'subject's' arrest by the Bethlehem police, and expressing his belief that they would not surrender him to the hospital, and again asked for permission to discharge the 'subject'. The Judge replied on November 23, 1926 that he had taken the matter up with the District Attorney's office; that they would lodge a detainer with the Northampton County authorities, and, "I see no reason why you could not close your files in this matter in any way you deem proper." Accordingly an entry was made by the Superintendent of the Hospital on the record of the case that Mulligan was "discharged by order of the Court".
It appears from the very careful and explicit return of the warden of the penitentiary, that when Mulligan was received at the Eastern State Penitentiary on November 23, 1926, he was entered to serve a back parole period of approximately two years remaining on a sentence imposed by a Philadelphia County Court on September 13, 1916. On September 1, 1928 this back parole time was completed and he was technically discharged and the same day was re-entered to start serving the sentences imposed bythe Northampton County Court on bills Nos. 69, 71 and 76, September Term 1926.
The Board of Pardons, in passing upon the prisoner's application for commutation of sentence, had full knowledge of all the foregoing, and had before it the report of the penitentiary psychiatrist, Dr. Roche, in which, as of date of June 4, 1940, and confirmed by him on April 9, 1942, he stated,
With these matters before it, the board held that Mulligan had completed the minimum sentences imposed on bills No. 69 and No. 71, and it commuted the minimum sentence on bill No. 76 to a minimum of 3 years, 8...
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