Kilgore v. Com.
| Decision Date | 21 June 1949 |
| Citation | 222 S.W.2d 600,310 Ky. 826 |
| Parties | KILGORE v. COMMONWEALTH. |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Warren County; John B. Rodes, Judge.
Edward Kilgore was charged with murder. From an order denying his motion to stay proceedings on ground he was insane and unable to stand trial, defendant appeals.
Appeal dismissed.
Rodes K. Myers, Bowling Green, W. O. Bilyeu, Bowling Green, Leland H. Logan, Bowling Green, Cecil Wilson, Glasgow, Philip Wilson, Glasgow, for appellant.
A. E Funk, Atty. Gen., W. Owen Keller, Asst. Atty. Gen., R. D Willock, Bowling Green, W. H. Natcher, Bowling Green, L. B Finn, Bowling Green, J. T. Orendorf, Bowling Green, G. D Milliken, Jr., Bowling Green, G. D. Milliken, Sr., Bowling Green, for appellee.
On the morning of June 28, 1948, Dr. and Mrs. C. B. Martin were slain in their home near Bowling Green. That morning the appellant, Edward Kilgore, was arrested at his home in Glasgow and charged with the double murder. On motion of appellant's counsel, an order was entered later on the day of the arrest for a mental examination, and the examination was conducted on the following day. On September 7, 1948, indictments were returned against appellant. A motion was then filed to stay proceedings until the sanity and ability of the appellant to stand trial were determined. Upon the showing made, an order was entered for a hearing, as provided by section 156 of the Criminal Code of Practice.
At a hearing beginning on September 22, 1948, and continuing for three days, thirty-three witnesses, including psychiatrists and physicians, were introduced for appellant; fifteen witnesses, including physicians and psychiatrists, were introduced by the Commonwealth. On September 24 the jury, after hearing the instructions of the court and arguments of counsel, returned the following verdict: 'We the jury find Edward Kilgore before us upon this hearing to be at the present time of sound mind,' and the following judgment was entered: 'It is therefore ordered and adjudged by the court that defendant, Harry Edward Kilgore, is a person of sound mind, and that defendant's motion for stayed proceedings herein, be, and the same is hereby overruled, to which ruling defendant excepts.'
Criminal Code of Practice, section 156, provides: 'If the court shall be of opinion that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant is insane, all proceedings in the trial shall be postponed until a jury be impaneled to inquire whether the defendant is of unsound mind, * * *.'
As said in Gregory's Criminal Law, section 960, page 724:
Whether an inquest, pursuant to Criminal Code of Practice, section 156, shall be held, rests in the sound discretion of the trial court. Murrell v. Commonwealth, 291 Ky. 65, 163 S.W.2d 1; White v. Commonwealth, 197 Ky. 79, 245 S.W. 892.
In each of these cases the motion for a sanity hearing was made during the course of the trial on a charge of murder. Each of the defendants was convicted, and upon each appeal from the judgment of conviction one of the errors assigned was the failure of the trial court to stay the proceedings and conduct a sanity hearing, as provided by section 156 of the Criminal Code of Practice. From a reading of the Code and these cases, and other cases cited in these cases, it is clear that the granting of a sanity hearing rests within the sound discretion of the trial judge. It is also clear that a request or motion for a sanity hearing is an interlocutory proceeding incidental and preliminary to the trial of the main issue. See Bishop's New Criminal Procedure, Vol. 3, page 1640.
Being an interlocutory proceeding, any error of the trial court can...
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Jackson v. State
...609, 310 N.E.2d 292; State v. Burrows, 250 La. 658, 198 So.2d 393; Desho v. State, 237 Ind. 308, 145 N.E.2d 429; Kilgore v. Commonwealth, 310 Ky. 826, 222 S.W.2d 600; Alexander v. State, 71 Okl.Cr. 47, 107 P.2d 811. It appears that in the preceding jurisdictions there is no question that an......
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