Ambrose v. Director of Patuxent Institution

PER Curiam. This application for leave to appeal is from a jury’s finding of defective delinquency on May 6, 1960. The application was not filed within the thirty days prescribed by Code (1960 Supp.), Art. 3IB, sec. 11, but it would appear that the applicant wrote a letter to the trial court concerning appeal, within thirty days after his conviction. Although he was correctly informed on May 26, 1960, that the change in the law, relating to applications for leave to appeal in forma pauperis, would not be effective until June 1, 1960, (cf. Acts (1960), ch. 43 and Cowman v. State, 220 Md. 207, 209 ), the Attorney General concedes, and we agree, that this application may be treated as a belated appeal.

We have so treated it, in directing the record to be transmitted to this Court. The applicant was represented by court appointed counsel at the hearing and was examined by an independent psychiatrist, Dr. Lerner, at his request. He had been convicted of unauthorized use of an automobile and sentenced to one year in the State Reformatory in June, 1958. On the day following his release he became involved in another larceny of an automobile and entered a plea of nolo contendere.

He was sentenced to eighteen months in the Reformatory, and an order for his examination at Patuxent was passed. There can be tio doubt that he was eligible for the examination under Code (1957), Art. 31B, sec. 6 (a), because of his