Hawks v. Peyton, 10608.

• Decision Date: 01 December 1966
• Docket Number: No. 10608.,10608.
• Citation: 370 F.2d 123
• Parties: Chester A. HAWKS, Appellee, v. C. C. PEYTON, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

370 F.2d 123 (1966)

Chester A. HAWKS, Appellee, v. C. C. PEYTON, Superintendent of the Virginia State Penitentiary, Appellant.

No. 10608.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued October 5, 1966.

Decided December 1, 1966.

Reno S. Harp, III, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Virginia (Robert Y. Button, Atty. Gen. of Virginia, and James Parker Jones, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Virginia, on the brief), for appellant.

Gilbert H. Wilson, Norfolk, Va. (Court-assigned counsel), Preston, Preston & Wilson, Norfolk, Va., on the brief, for appellee.

Before HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge, and BRYAN and WINTER, Circuit Judges.

ALBERT V. BRYAN, Circuit Judge:

On habeas corpus from the District Court Chester A. Hawks, a felon in the Virginia penitentiary, was ordered retried or released, and the State appeals. We reverse.

In 1966, several years after his conviction of murder with a life sentence, Hawks appropriately petitioned the Federal court for discharge on the ground that he was insane at the time of trial, January 6, 1959. Disclaiming any finding of mental incompetency either when tried or when he committed the homicide, or a finding of Hawks' inability to assist in his defense, the District Court ordered his retrial or release solely on the ground that the State judge abused his discretion in not granting the accused's pretrial motion for an inquiry de lunatico. The applicable Virginia statute then read:¹

"If, prior to the time for trial of any person charged with crime, either the court or attorney for the Commonwealth has reason to believe that such person is in such mental condition that his confinement in a hospital for the insane * * * is necessary for proper care and observation, the court or the judge thereof may, after hearing evidence on the subject, commit such person * * * to any State hospital for the insane best adapted to meet the needs of the case * * *. In any such case the court, in its discretion, may appoint one or more physicians skilled in the diagnosis of insanity, or other qualified physicians, * * * not to exceed three, to examine the defendant before such commitment is ordered, make such investigation of the case as they may deem necessary and report to the court the condition of the defendant at the time of their examination. * * *" (Accent added.)

Subsequent provisions directed a report by the hospital to the court in respect to its findings of the mental state of the defendant.

The motion here, advanced by a lawyer of experience retained for Hawks by his brothers, suggested the incompetency of his client on the basis of low mentality as known generally to the lawyer, and on Hawks' assertion that he could not recall the circumstances of the crime. The request was that he be committed to the State mental hospital for observation and study. We hold that the evidence adduced on the motion does not show that the trial judge's refusal to order commitment to the hospital or examination by "physicians skilled in the diagnosis of insanity" was an abuse of discretion of Constitutional stature.

The question before the State judge was whether there was "reason to believe" Hawks was incompetent. In his concern for the accused's interest, the Court called upon the services of a community-recognized physician. A general practitioner, he made no pretensions to an intimate acquaintance with psychiatry or mental disease. As it was a rural community, no specialists were immediately at hand. Accompanied by defense counsel, the judge himself went to the jail to observe Hawks during his examination by the doctor. Later, the doctor talked at length with the accused alone.

At the hearing on the motion in the State court the physician testified he found no mental infirmity in Hawks save a low intelligence. There was proof of epilepsy in the family and of an attempt by the defendant to kill himself after his crime. Two laymen gave evidence, but its purport is not known now because there was no transcript of the proceedings. Of course, the hearing afforded the judge a further opportunity to appraise Hawks in the light of his demeanor. This was the evidence which the State judge found inadequate, and we think permissibly, to warrant further investigation.

In the District Court habeas corpus proceeding in 1966 the doctor could not recall his examination of Hawks or his own testimony in the State court preliminary hearing in December 1958 or early 1959. However, the trial judge did remember and he repeated the doctor's report to the court. Hawks' attorney testified that he was confident of the doctor's ability and sincerity, and so had pursued the motion no further. He also said that his client seemed quite capable to assist him, except for an insistence upon a total ignorance of the fact or facts of the homicide.

Under both State and Federal procedures a simple suggestion of mental deficiency is not enough to require deferment of the trial. Commitment to a hospital...