Bailey v. Superintendent of Spring Grove State Hospital

Collins, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an application for leave to appeal from refusal of a writ of habeas corpus. This application was filed by George A. Bailey now confined in the Spring Grove State Hospital. In this case the appeal to this court states, “I should have been entitled to a sanity hearing by an empaneled jury of the Law Courts of Baltimore City.” In the papers before us, which apparently are the papers before the judge who refused the writ, there is no commitment or other paper showing just why the petitioner was committed.

From a letter in the files in this case, it appears that ⁷³⁶ the superintendent of Spring Grove State Hospital wrote a letter containing the following statement, to the bailiff for Judge W. Conwell Smith, “Mr. Bailey was admitted to this hospital on November 15, 1943, on the order of Judge Emory Niles of the Criminal Court of Baltimore. Mr. Bailey had been awaiting trial on the charge of ‘Incorrigible Minor’, No. 4724, Docket of 1943, September Term, 1943. He pleaded ‘Guilty’, and on November 15, 1943, it was recommended by the court that ‘the prisoner be confined in Spring Grove State Hospital for Insane until he recovers his Reason or Be Discharged by Due Course of Law.’ ” The letter also stated that in the