In re Kemmerer, Motion No. 245.
| Decision Date | 11 September 1944 |
| Docket Number | Motion No. 245. |
| Citation | 15 N.W.2d 652,309 Mich. 313 |
| Parties | In re KEMMERER. |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Proceeding in the matter of the petition of William G. Kemmerer for a writ of habeas corpus, wherein a writ of habeas corpus and an ancillary writ of certiorari were issued.
Writs dismissed.
Before the Entire Bench.
Kemmerer pro se.
Opposed by H. J. Rushton, Atty. Gen.
On presentation of the petition of William G. Kemmerer, we issued a writ of habeas corpus to the warden of the State prison at Jackson and an ancillary writ of certiorari to the recorder's court of the city of Detroit. Returns were duly made. The record shows that on January 21, 1941, a warrant was issued charging petitioner with indecent and obscene exposure in the presence of a young girl. Complaint was made under section 335, Michigan Penal Code, Act No. 328, Pub.Laws 1931, Comp.Laws Supp.1940, § 17115-335 (Stat.Ann. § 28.567), which defines such an offense as a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year by fine of not more than $500. On arraignment defendant stood mute. On examination he was bound over for trial. Prior to the trial, however, a petition was presented by the prosecuting attorney for the examination of the defendant by psychiatrists in accordance with the provisions of Act No. 165, Pub.Acts 1939, Comp.Laws Supp. 1940, § 6991-1 et seq., Stat.Ann. § 28.967(1) et seq. The petition alleged that defendant was suffering from a mental disorder but was not insane or feebleminded; that this psychosis had existed for not less than one year; that it manifests itself in criminal tendencies and in the commission of sex offenses; and that Kemmerer was a criminal sexual psychopathic person. It was shown that he had been convicted of indecent exposure and similar offenses on November 20, 1929, July 20, 1932, September 27, 1932, October 7, 1936, when he was convicted of disturbing the peace (window peeping), and November 17, 1937. He has served sentences for all these offenses except one for which he was placed on one year's probation. The prosecutor's petition was granted on January 31, 1941, and a psychiatric commission was appointed to examine Kemmerer in accordance with Act No. 165, supra. The commission filed a written report on April 1, 1941, and a hearing was held in open court at which the two members of the commission testified in the presence of defendant and defendant's counsel. Petitioner claims that there was no examination in open court, but the return of the trial judge shows that petitioner was mistaken. The record further shows that defendant had previously in writing waived a jury trial notwithstanding his present statement to the contrary. If further shows that petitioner was represented by counsel who stated in open court that petitioner had been advised of his rights and that he had desired to waive a trial by jury. The trial judge adjudged him to be a criminal sexual psychopath within the meaning of Act No. 165, supra, and committed him to the State hospital commission to be confined in an appropriate institution under the jurisdiction of the commission or of the State correction commission until he shall have been fully and permanently recovered, or otherwise discharged in proper legal proceedings.
The prisoner was first sent to Ionia State Hospital but later was transferred to Jackson Prison in accordance with an agreement between the State Hospital Commission and the State Corrections Commission under which the Corrections Commission would accept for therapeutic observation, care and treatment such persons who had been legally committed to the care of the Hospital Commission as criminal sexual psychopathic persons, and who were turned over to its care by the Hospital Commission. The agreement further recited that No. 12 block of the State Prison of Southern Michigan, located in Jackson County, Michigan, would constitute and be recognized as the official clinic for the transfer, observation, care and treatment of such designated persons. The Michigan Corrections Commission agreed to send psychiatrists periodically to the designated...
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