Commonwealth v. Smith.

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
• Writing for the Court: MAXEY, Chief Justice.
• Citation: 362 Pa. 222,66 A.2d 764
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. SMITH.
• Decision Date: 24 June 1949

362 Pa. 222
66 A.2d 764

COMMONWEALTH
v.
SMITH.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

June 24, 1949.

Appeal No. 137, January term, 1949, from judgment and sentence of Court of Oyer and Terminer, Philadelphia County, February Term, 1948, No. 384; Charles L. Guerin, Judge.

James Smith was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals.

Affirmed and record remitted.

Before MAXEY, C. J., and LINN, STERN, PATTERSON, STEARNE, and JONES, Jj.

Herbert S. Levin and Harry M. Berkowitz, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Colbert C. McClain, Assistant District Attorney, and John H. Maurer, District Attorney, Philadelphia, for appellee.

MAXEY, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal based upon alleged abuse of discretion by the court below in imposing the death penalty after appellant's plea of guilty of murder. James Smith pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with the murder of John J. Haines on September 21, 1948, in Philadelphia. On the same day he was adjudged guilty of murder in the first degree by the court en banc, composed of Judges Charles L. Guerin, Joseph Sloane and Vincent A. Carroll.

The victim, John J. Haines, was a taxicab driver. He was found shot through the back of his head, slumped on the front seat of his cab, bleeding, shortly after midnight, on January 15, 1948, on Delaware Avenue near South Street, Philadelphia. Edward G. Gundaker, Jr., was operating a tow truck in the vicinity when he saw appellant emerging from the cab, apprehended him, and turned him over to the police. Appellant admitted that he had shot Haines and signed a statement admitting that the gun he used in the killing was one he had obtained in a robbery in Camden, New Jersey; that around midnight on January 14th he determined to rob someone, hailed a cab and, later, intending to rob the driver, shot and killed him. When he was asked: ‘When you told the cab driver that it was a holdup, did the cab driver say anything to you?’ Smith answered: ‘No, sir. I had the gun pointed at him. He didn't say anything.’

The defense called as a witness Dr. Fred Adams, a New York psychiatrist, connected with the Kings County Hospital, Kings County, New York. He testified that during May or June, 1945, at the request of the Kings County Court, he and Dr. Gladys McDermaid, also a psychiatrist, examined appellant and diagnosed him as ‘psychosis. Schizophrenia. Hebephrenic type’; that this type of schizophrenia is a ‘mental disturbance characterized usually by illusions, delusions, hallucinations referable to the idea of persecution or grandeur’; that this diagnosis was aided by the findings of a psychologist, Dr. Samuel Machover. On the basis of these findings, they submitted to the Court that appellant was ‘presently insane, not imbecile and is not capable of understanding the charge against him, the proceedings against him and of making his defense.’ Defendant was then committed by the Court to the Brooklyn State Hospital for treatment of his mental condition. When questioned by the court Dr. Adams testified that when examined in 1945 the appellant did not know the difference between right and wrong.

Dr. Bellinger was also called by appellant. He is the Senior Director of Brooklyn State Hospital, in Brooklyn, New York. He testified that hospital psychiatrists examined the appellant and substantially confirmed the previous diagnosis, except that they concluded the type to be catatonic rather than hebephrenic. Dr. Bellinger stated that appellant was detained until October 11, 1945, ‘when he was discharged to the Department of Correction of the

66 A.2d 765

City of New York after I had personally examined him and found him to be, in my opinion, sane and capable of understanding the charges pending against him and of conferring with counsel in the making of his defense [for stealing an automobile]. I reported of record that I examined this young man myself on the 9th of October and I certified to the Committing Judge and the District...