Lewellyng v. United States
Decision Date | 08 July 1963 |
Docket Number | No. 20251.,20251. |
Parties | James Weldon LEWELLYNG, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
James Weldon Lewellyng, pro se, Myron M. Sheinfeld, Houston, Tex., for appellant.
William K. Hughes, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., Fort Worth, Tex., Robert B. Ward, Asst. U. S. Atty., Dallas, Tex., Barefoot Sanders, U. S. Atty., for appellee.
Before RIVES, CAMERON and HAYS*, Circuit Judges.
Before trial, the defendant's court-appointed attorney moved the court to cause the defendant to be examined as to his mental condition by a qualified psychiatrist and that the psychiatrist report his findings to the court. The grounds set forth in the motion were as follows:
After a hearing the court denied the motion because it concluded that it was not made in good faith. The essential basis for that conclusion was an intercepted letter from the defendant to his female co-defendant, appealing to her to testify in support of his claim of insanity.
Under 18 U.S.C.A. § 4244, the general rule is that in every case where a motion is filed setting forth grounds which constitute reasonable cause to believe that the defendant "may be presently insane or otherwise so mentally incompetent as to be unable to understand the proceedings against him or properly to assist in his own defense," it becomes the mandatory duty of the court to have the defendant "examined as to his mental condition by at least one qualified psychiatrist, who shall report to the court." Krupnick v. United States, 8 Cir. 1959, 264 F.2d 213; United States v. Walker, 6 Cir. 1962, 301 F.2d 211; Gunther v. United States, 1954, 94 U.S. App.D.C. 243, 215 F.2d 493; Kenner v. United States, 8 Cir. 1960, 286 F.2d 208. Only when the motion does not set forth grounds for reasonable cause to believe that the defendant may be so insane or mentally incompetent, or when the motion appears, with reasonable certainty, to be frivolous or in bad faith (see Lebron v. United States, 1955, 97 U.S.App.D.C. 133, 229 F.2d 16; Shelton v. United States, 5 Cir. 1953, 205 F.2d 806, 815; Behrens v. United States, 7 Cir. 1962, 312 F.2d 223, 225) can it be denied. In the present case, in order to safely rely upon the defendant's own letter as evidence of bad faith, the district court and this Court must first assume the defendant's mental competency when he wrote the letter, thus effectively begging the question at issue. Thereby the court would itself, without the aid of a qualified psychiatrist, pass upon the defendant's mental competency. Under the statute, that is not permissible. As said in ...
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...In Lewellyng v. United States, 320 F.2d 104 (5th Cir.1963), we found that the district court erred in refusing to grant the defendant a mental examination on the issue of competency to stand trial. The defendant's motion for a mental examination had included allegations that he received a b......
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...which was remanded only for the limited purpose of a de novo hearing to determine a question nunc pro tunc, was Llewellyng v. United States, 5 Cir., 320 F.2d 104, 106, where the Court "We think that the court erred in refusing to grant the defendant's motion for a psychiatric examination be......
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