Higgins v. United States

• Decision Date: 08 September 1953
• Docket Number: No. 13497.,13497.
• Citation: 205 F.2d 650
• Parties: HIGGINS v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

205 F.2d 650 (1953)

HIGGINS v. UNITED STATES.

No. 13497.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

June 29, 1953.

Rehearing Denied September 8, 1953.

John Michael Higgins, Los Angeles, Cal., in pro. per. and Morris Lavine, Los Angeles, Cal., for appellant.

Morris Lavine, Los Angeles, Cal., amicus curiae.

Walter S. Binns, U. S. Atty., Ray H. Kinnison, Norman W. Neukom and Lelia F. Bulgrin, Asst. U. S. Attys., Los Angeles, Cal., for appellee.

Before STEPHENS and POPE, Circuit Judges, and McCORMICK, District Judge.

STEPHENS, Circuit Judge.

John Michael Higgins was indicted on June 7, 1950, for sending postal cards allegedly containing "libelous, scurrilous, and defamatory" language through the United States mails in violation of Title 18 U.S. C.A. § 1718. When Higgins appeared before the court for arraignment and plea, the court of its own motion ordered that he be examined by court-appointed psychiatrists to determine his mental competency "to be able to understand the proceedings against him and properly to assist in his own defense". Title 18 U.S.C.A. § 4244. Thereafter, the court ordered a hearing and appointed counsel to represent Higgins at the hearing. To avoid confusion, we shall refer to Higgins as defendant. The testimony of two qualified psychiatrists who had theretofore examined defendant was received, as was the testimony of Higgins himself and one witness on his behalf. Defendant was found "insane and mentally incompetent" and "unable to make a defense to the charge" in the indictment. He was then committed to the custody of the Attorney General until he should become mentally competent or until further order of the court. He was hospitalized at the United States Medical Center for federal prisoners at Springfield, Missouri, for treatment. No appeal was taken.

While at the institution in Springfield, defendant filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, a petition for habeas corpus requiring the government to show cause why he should not be released from custody or tried on the original criminal complaint. The court found that defendant's commitment had been regular and legal, but that he had apparently regained his sanity to the extent that he could "probably" stand trial on the charges pending against him. Higgins v. McGrath, D.C., 1951, 98 F.Supp. 670. The court made no determination as to whether defendant was mentally fit to stand trial but ordered that he be returned at once to the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, wherein defendant had been originally committed, and which court had retained jurisdiction.

Defendant was returned to the Southern California District Court and that court, Judge Westover presiding, ordered a new hearing for the purpose of ascertaining whether defendant was mentally fit for trial. It should be clearly understood that the hearing before Judge Westover was not a continuation of the Missouri habeas corpus proceeding but was a hearing under the same code sections under which the original commitment to the Medical Center was had and in the same case. Title 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 4244, 4246. The court determined that defendant "* * * is, at the present time, an insane and metally incompetent person. * * * That by reason of said defendant's mental incompetency, said defendant is unable to make a defense to the charges contained in the indictment herein." Commitment was then made to the Attorney General "for the purpose of observation and treatment until such time as said defendant shall become mentally competent or until the further order of the court."

Defendant is restrained under said order and has filed a notice of appeal therefrom.

The defendant has raised many points upon which he seeks reversal, among them the unconstitutionality of §§ 4244 and 4246, the denial of a jury trial on the issue of insanity, the propriety of his arrest and lack of due process.

We have been somewhat puzzled as to whether the order appealed from is in fact a final order subject to appeal. Title 28 U.S.C.A. § 1291. On the authority of Cohen v. Beneficial Loan Corp., 1949, 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528, we have resolved the doubt in favor of reviewing the order. Inasmuch as the defendant's mental disturbance may be of long duration, perhaps for life, and his trial may therefore be delayed over a very long time, and perhaps forever, the order adjudging him incompetent for trial has a phase of finality in it.

The order does not purport to merely refuse trial from day to day at the convenience of the court or for a short period of time to enable defendant to recover from a temporary upset. It is, in nature, the kind of order which would never be reviewed on direct appeal after trial. The court in the Cohen case, supra, 337 U.S. at page 546, 69 S.Ct. at page 1225, says: "Nor does the statute permit appeals, even from fully consummated decisions, where they are but steps towards final judgment in which they will merge. The purpose is to combine in one review all stages of the proceeding that effectively may be reviewed and corrected if and when final judgment results. But this order of the District Court did not make any step toward final disposition of the merits of the case and will not be merged in final judgment. When that time comes, it will be too late effectively to review the present order and the rights conferred by the statute, if it is applicable, will have been lost, probably irreparably. We conclude that the matters embraced in the decision appealed from are not of such an interlocutory nature as to affect, or...