Barnes v. Director

Hammond, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The applicant Barnes has thrice been determined to be a defective delinquent, first by a jury in 1958, next in 1961 by Judge Manley who found as a fact that he would be a threat to society if he was released (see Barnes v. Director, 227 Md. 641, 642, cert. den. 368 U. S. 1004 , wherein his application for leave to appeal was denied), and last by Judge Byrnes in October 1964. In his application for leave to appeal from the finding of Judge Byrnes, Barnes claims through his court-appointed counsel, that there was insufficient evidence to support the finding of defective delinquency, the evidence shows that he is not being, and not likely to be, improved or rehabilitated by treatment at Patuxent and therefore should be released and that if he is to be indefinitely confined without effective treatment the provisions of law providing for such indefinite detention and the resulting detention are unconstitutional. We have caused the record of the trial before Judge Byrnes to be written up.

It makes clear beyond doubt that the Patuxent staff, including Dr. Boslow, were of the firm opinion that Barnes is mentally defective, emotionally unbalanced and a serious potential threat to society, and that Dr. Pope, the psychiatrist furnished Barnes by the State and a doctor in whom he has confidence, concurs. Dr. Boslow’s testimony was that Barnes came to Patuxent in 1957, when he was sixteen, with a record of breaking and entering, larceny and robbery. He had earlier twice been com ³⁴ mitted to Crownsville. In 1959 he was sent from Patuxent to Crownsville for a stay of six months.

He was transferred for some months in 1960 to Clifton T. Perkins State Hospital and again sent there in 1961. At Crownsville he made aggressive homosexual attacks on other patients and at Perkins hit a patient on the head with a baseball bat. Barnes’ record at Patuxent has been “extremely poor.” He has received many “disciplinary tickets” for fighting, possessing contraband, homosexual attacks and making false reports against an officer. He would not attend school regularly.

His behavior at group therapy classes so disrupted the classes that he had to be dropped. He has not changed since he first entered Patuxent and “* * * is still a mental defective who is emotionally unstable, and with the slightest provocation would have a tendency to act in an impulsive, aggressive, hostile manner. * * * he still is a danger to society.” Dr. Boslow testified further that Barnes has been “a constant source of difficulty” and has had to be put in tier M-l, the most restricted tier, in which “we keep the individuals who