Blakney v. Director of Patuxent Institution

Per Curiam. On February 1, 1961, Roger F. Blakney, the applicant, then seventeen years old, deliberately started a fire at the out-patient clinic of a hospital, which did extensive damage. 1 He was indicted for arson, at first pleaded not guilty, was examined by a medical examiner of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, later pleaded guilty, and was sentenced in April, 1961, by Chief Judge Niles to not more than five years’ imprisonment in the Reformatory for Males, but was ordered to be sent to the Patuxent Institution for examination and report. The report of the Supreme Bench Medical Examiner, dated March 3, 1961, stated in part that in view of “the marked limitations of the patient, both intellectually and emotionally,” it was to his interest and that of society that he be returned to Boys’ Village, that he was not “overtly psychotic” at the time and therefore commitment to a mental hospital was not in order, and then continued: “Though the patient is not felt to be sufficiently disturbed to fall into the category of a defective delinquent, he may very well end up fulfilling that category.” On March 19, 1962, Judge Byrnes, sitting without a jury, found Blakney to be a defective delinquent and ordered him committed to Patuxent. Pie seeks leave to appeal.

The application for leave to appeal claims that Judge Byrnes’ finding was erroneous in that the State failed to meet the ⁶¹² burden of proof to establish Blakney’s defective delinquency, and asserts that the State’s testimony consisted solely of the oral testimony of Dr.