People v. Brown
Decision Date | 28 May 1969 |
Docket Number | No. 41666,41666 |
Citation | 250 N.E.2d 647,43 Ill.2d 79 |
Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. George F. BROWN, Sr., Appellant. |
Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
George F. Brown, Sr., pro se.
William J. Scott, Atty., Gen., Springfield, and John Morton Jones, State's Atty., Danville (Fred G. Leach, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Larry P. Cramer, Special Asst. State's Atty., of counsel) for the People.
The sole question presented by this appeal is whether a defendant may waive his right to have a jury determine his competency to stand trial.
Defendant was indicted by a grand jury in Vermilion County for the offenses of aggravated incest and indecent liberties with a child. After his privately retained counsel filed a petition to determine defendant's competency to stand trial, the court appointed two psychiatrists to examine him. The defendant signed a waiver of his right to have a jury determine his competency, after being admonished by the court and advised by his counsel. The defense and the People also stipulated that if the opinions of the two psychiatrists were that defendant was competent to stand trial, that would be the only evidence offered by the defendant on that issue; but if the opinion of either or both doctors were that defendant was incompetent, the State's Attorney would have the right to cross-examine the doctors.
The report of Dr. Charles E. Beck states in part:
The findings in the report of Dr. T. A. Kiersch are:
Based on these psychiatric reports and his personal observations and conversations with the defendant, the court found him competent to stand trial. The defendant then entered a plea of guilty to the count of the indictment charging indecent liberties with a child. His request for probation was denied, and he was sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of 18 to 20 years. Thereafter he filed a petition under section 72 of the Civil Practice Act, (Ill.Rev.Stat.1967, ch. 110, par. 72) alleging his incompetency at the time he entered his plea of guilty. On motion of the People, the trial court denied the petition.
To avert the finding of competency, defendant argues that the trial court must impanel a jury to determine the question of a defendant's competency to stand trial and that his jury waiver and competency...
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...of her competency to stand trial. People v. Manning, (1979) 76 Ill.2d 235, 28 Ill.Dec. 544, 390 N.E.2d 903; People v. Brown, (1969) 43 Ill.2d 79, 250 N.E.2d 647. See Lyles v. United States, (1957) 103 U.S.App.D.C. 22, 254 F.2d 725, cert. denied, (1958) 356 U.S. 961, 78 S.Ct. 997, 2 L.Ed.2d ......
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