Humphrey v. State

• Decision Date: 10 April 1933
• Docket Number: 22712.
• Citation: 169 S.E. 53,46 Ga.App. 720
• Parties: HUMPHREY v. STATE.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

169 S.E. 53

46 Ga.App. 720

HUMPHREY v. STATE.

No. 22712.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, First Division

April 10, 1933

Syllabus by the Court.

Plea in bar, alleging accused had been previously adjudicated temporarily insane, held generally demurrable, where accused was in actual custody of court, although alleging sheriff was holding accused under lunacy warrant, awaiting his transfer to state sanitarium, since court's jurisdiction was not impaired by manner in which accused was brought before it (Civ. Code 1910, § 3092, as amended by Laws 1915, p. 20; Pen. Code 1910, § 976).

1. Where the case of a defendant, charged with murder and in the actual custody of the court, is called for trial, a plea in bar, that the defendant had been previously adjudicated "temporarily insane" at a time when no indictment was pending against him, is subject to general demurrer; and this is true notwithstanding the allegation in said plea that the sheriff was holding the defendant under a lunacy warrant awaiting his transfer to the state sanitarium to which he had been committed, since the jurisdiction of the court in which the indictment was found was not impaired by the manner in which the accused was brought before it.

2. If it be contended that the defendant is insane at the time of his trial, our law secures to him the right to have the question of his mental condition at that time inquired into before being required to plead to the indictment.

Error from Superior Court, Jenkins County; H. B. Strange, Judge.

Davis Humphrey was indicted for murder, his plea in bar, based on an adjudication of insanity by a lunacy commission and accused's detention in custody thereunder, was stricken and accused brings error.

Affirmed.

R. H Humphrey, of Swainsboro, for plaintiff in error.

W. G Neville, Sol. Gen., of Statesboro, Lawrence S. Camp, Atty. Gen., and T. R. Gress, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

MacINTYRE Judge.

The indictment in this case, procured on May 10, 1932, charges the defendant with committing murder on April 26, 1932. On May 13, 1932, the case was called for trial in Jenkins superior court; whereupon the accused filed substantially the following plea:

1. The case should be dismissed because the defendant is insane, he "having been legally adjudged insane by a lunacy commission appointed by the ordinary of Jenkins county on the 5th day of May, 1932."

2. "That at the time of said lunacy hearing there was not an indictment nor any other charge pending in this court nor any other court against the defendant, Davis Humphrey."

3. "That the said jailer and sheriff of Jenkins County, the Honorable Frank Marbach, is now and has since the 5th day of May, 1932, been holding said defendant under a lunacy warrant, awaiting his transfer to the State sanitarium, to which he has been committed."

4. "The defendant will be placed in a U.S. hospital for mentally defective veterans, which transfer from the State sanitarium is authorized by the Federal statutes, and in the case at bar has been agreed to by the Veterans' Administration."

5. "The laws of this State prohibit the trial of any person afflicted with insanity."

Upon the presentation of said plea the solicitor general demurred orally thereto and moved to strike the same upon the ground that it "presented no legal reason why the cause should not proceed to trial." The trial judge sustained this motion and dismissed said plea, and the only exception here is to his judgment so doing.

In order to present a complete picture of the matter under consideration, we will state that on April 27, 1932, F. A. Marbach made an affidavit that the accused committed murder on April 26, 1932; that a warrant based upon said affidavit was duly issued; and that on May 5, 1932, the committing magistrate, M. G. McComb, entered the following order: "The prosecutor not appearing, the accused is hereby ordered dismissed from custody."

It appears from the copy of the proceedings before the ordinary (attached to the plea as an exhibit) that on May 5, 1932, the same day that the justice of the peace dismissed the accused for want of prosecution, one J. H. Simpson filed a petition asking that a lunacy commission be appointed to investigate the sanity of the accused, and naming three persons as his three nearest adult relatives; that on May 5, 1932, said relatives acknowledged notice of "the above application," waived all further notice or service, and consented that "the commission therein prayed for may issue immediately"; that on May 5, 1932, the commission was issued; that on May 5, 1932, the commission reported that the accused was "temporarily insane"; and that on May 5, 1932, the ordinary adjudged the accused to be insane and ordered that he be committed to the Georgia State Sanitarium.

The insanity proceedings in this case were brought under section 3092 of the Civil Code (1910), as amended by the act of 1915 (Ga. Laws 1915, p. 20). This section requires ten days' notice of the application to be given the three nearest adult relatives of the person sought to be committed, and the courts have held that the proceedings...