Williams v. United States, 13626.

• Decision Date: 01 November 1957
• Docket Number: No. 13626.,13626.
• Citation: 102 US App. DC 51,250 F.2d 19
• Parties: Dallas O. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

102 US App. DC 51, 250 F.2d 19 (1957)

Dallas O. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 13626.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued October 8, 1957.

Decided November 1, 1957.

Petition for Rehearing Denied November 22, 1957.

Mr. Nestor S. Foley, Washington, D. C., (appointed by this Court) with whom Mr. George Rublee, II, Washington, D. C., was on the brief for appellant.

Mr. John D. Lane, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Messrs. Oliver Gasch, U. S. Atty., Lewis Carroll and Thomas Flannery, Asst. U. S. Attys., were on the brief, for appellee. Mr. Milton Eisenberg, Asst. U. S. Atty., at the time record was filed, also entered an appearance for appellee.

Before BAZELON, FAHY and WASHINGTON, Circuit Judges.

Petition for Rehearing In Banc Denied November 22, 1957.

BAZELON, Circuit Judge.

Appellant, having waived jury trial, was convicted on May 4, 1956, of assault with a deadly weapon, on an indictment returned in November 1949 for a shooting on September 26, 1949. It was his fifth trial and third conviction for that offense. The case is here for the third time.

His first conviction was reversed when the Government confessed error. The second and third trials resulted in mistrials. The conviction resulting from his fourth trial was reversed by this court, sitting in banc, because the trial court had denied appellant's motion for an adjudication of his competency to stand trial, as required by Perry v. United States, 1952, 90 U.S.App.D.C. 186, 195 F.2d 37. Between his first and second trials appellant was adjudicated incompetent and committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital. He was again adjudicated incompetent and committed to the hospital between his third and fourth trials and between his fourth and fifth trials. On his first conviction in February 1950, which was on three counts, appellant was sentenced to two to seven years on counts 1 and 2 and one year on count 3, all concurrent. The second conviction in December 1953 brought a sentence of three to nine years. The present sentence is one to three years. He has already been confined for a total of about seven years in the course of this long prosecution — about six years in jail and about a year in St. Elizabeths Hospital. With time off for good behavior, his present sentence will have been served by September of 1958.

The principal defense at the trial under review was insanity. Appellant claimed that his mental illness had started long before 1949 and that the crime was a product of the illness. The Government's theory was that appellant had not been mentally ill at the time of the crime, but had developed "prison psychosis" as a result of subsequent confinement.

The grounds of this appeal are (1) that Williams was denied the speedy trial required by the Sixth Amendment¹ and (2) that the prosecution failed to sustain its burden of proving his sanity.

Whether long delay of prosecution requires dismissal of an indictment even if there is no showing that the delay prejudiced the accused need not be determined here.² The question here is whether, when such delay does result in prejudice to the accused, it is just to try him. The Government states that it would have moved for a dismissal of this indictment, were it not for its concern with appellant's dangerous recidivism.³ It seems, therefore, to have recognized that it is unjust to try an accused after long and prejudicial delay.

The Supreme Court said in Beavers v. Haubert, 1905, 198 U.S. 77, 87, 25 S.Ct. 573, 576, 49 L.Ed. 950:

"* * * The right of a speedy trial is necessarily relative. It is consistent with delays and depends upon circumstances. It secures rights to a defendant. It does not preclude the rights of public justice."

To hold that delay occasioned by the accused's mental incompetence to stand trial always requires dismissal of his indictment would be to ignore the "rights of public justice." On the other hand, to resume the prosecution of the accused after long delay may in some circumstances violate his rights beyond the requirements of public justice. To sustain its right to try the accused seven years after the crime, the Government must show two things, in my view: (1) that there was no more delay than is reasonably attributable to the ordinary processes of justice, and (2) that the accused suffered no serious prejudice beyond that which ensued from the ordinary and inevitable delay. My colleagues do not reach the question whether the Government must make the first showing. They agree, however, that it must make the second where the delay has been substantial. Since the delay has been substantial and we are all agreed that the Government has failed to make the second showing, we hold the conviction should be reversed and the case remanded with instructions to dismiss the indictment. For my part, I would reverse upon the additional ground that the Government has failed to make the first showing. The remarks which follow relating to the nature of the delay are those of the writer alone.

The Nature of the Delay

Undeniably the bulk of the seven-year delay in bringing appellant to the trial which resulted in his present conviction was a direct or indirect consequence of his mental incompetency. The accused's incompetency necessarily slows the judicial process. Such delay is inevitable. By the Government's construction of the facts, however, appellant's mental illness had not existed at the time of the crime or even at the time of the first trial, but was brought on by the pressure of imprisonment some time after his first conviction. If the judicial process could and should have been completed before appellant became ill, his eventual illness will not excuse a long-delayed prosecution.

Appellant's 1950 conviction was reversed on the Government's admission that it could not sustain it "because of the total lack of any instruction on the elements of the offense charged." The prosecution's recognition of its duty to confess error when error is clear is commendable. But the prosecution's confession came only after the lapse of more than two years. Except for this, there is no reason to believe that, if appellant was not ill at the time of the offense, a second trial could not have been completed before he became ill. Exactly when appellant's illness began, by the Government's theory, is not clear. The prison authorities noticed bizarre behavior on appellant's part some time in 1950, but it was not until June 28, 1951, that the Government filed the lunacy petition which led to appellant's incompetency adjudication on July 2, 1951. Instead of speedily admitting the invalidity of the first conviction and bringing appellant on for a second trial without delay, the Government postponed as long as possible the necessity of confessing error. It first contested the sufficiency of appellant's notice of appeal. Appellant had handed his notice of appeal to the deputy marshal for transmittal to the clerk of the District Court. The deputy marshal held the notice for five days before filing it, so that it reached the court on the eleventh day after sentence. On the ensuing issue of whether there was an effective notice of appeal, the Government contended in the negative until on February 23, 1951, we held the notice effective. Williams v. United States, 1951, 88 U.S.App.D.C. 212, 188 F.2d 41. When the time came for the Government to file its brief in the appeal, in which it would have had to take a position on the validity of the conviction, it moved instead that the appeal be held in abeyance pending restoration of appellant's competency, appellant having been declared incompetent just the previous month. It was not until April 17, 1952, after appellant was discharged from St. Elizabeths Hospital to the jail and moved for release on bail, that the Government made its confession of error. In the circumstances of this case, I cannot hold that there was no more delay than was reasonably incident to the ordinary processes of justice.

Prejudicial Effect of Delay

Whether or not the Government unreasonably extended the delay, we are agreed that the delay in this case was beyond the ordinary and that the extraordinary delay resulted in serious prejudice to appellant.

When prosecution is delayed because of the accused's mental incapacity to stand trial, the difficulty of determining whether the accused was mentally responsible at the time of the crime is increased. Passage of time makes proof of any fact more difficult. When the fact at issue is as subtle as a mental state, the difficulty is immeasurably enhanced. Courts must on occasion risk the increased difficulty of proof. But the interest of justice requires that there be no difficulty which is reasonably avoidable. There is a duty to minimize the difficulty so that the judgment, when ultimately reached, may be relied on as the closest approach to truth of which the judicial process is capable. That duty rests upon the accused as well as upon the Government — upon the accused because his is the burden, in the first instance of making some showing of insanity, Davis v. United States, 1895, 160 U.S. 469, 16 S.Ct. 353, 40 L.Ed. 499; Tatum v. United States, 1951, 88 U.S. App.D.C. 386, 190 F.2d 612; Durham v. United States, 1954, 94 U.S.App.D.C. 228, 214 F.2d 862, 45 A.L.R.2d 1430; Douglas v. United States, 1956, 99 U.S. App.D.C. 232, 239 F.2d 52; upon the Government because it has the burden, once there has been some showing of insanity, of establishing beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime was not the product of mental illness. Ibid.

The preparation of the psychiatric evidence which is required to prove an individual's mental condition at some past date is a very difficult task.⁴ It is a task for which the accused generally lacks both financial⁵ and intellectual capacity.⁶ The facts required by way of psychiatric testimony are a "description and explanation of the origin, development, and...