Deems v. State

Urner, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant is under sentence of death' upon a conviction of murder in the first degree. The assault which culminated in the homicide was horrible in its brutality. A deaf -mute woman was the innocent and helpless victim.

While walking on a country highway in the early afternoon of a summer: day she was attacked and dragged to a place of seclusion ⁶²⁶ and there denuded, raped, robbed and beaten to death with a club. There could be no doubt that the appellant was the perpetrator of this fiendish deed. In fact, he confessed the homicide, although he denied the rape, claiming that robbery was the only object of the assault. The sole defense sought to be established at his trial on the charge of murder was that the prisoner was not mentally capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, and of appreciating the nature and consequences of his act, at the time it was committed.

No evidence whatever was offered in his behalf except in support of this theory as stated and urged by his counsel. An alienist who examined the prisoner, at his counsel’s request, ten days after the homicide, testified that he “had an undeveloped brain, low mental capacity, immatured judgment and reasoning capacityand “the various tests showed him to be a man with a brain not more than eleven or twelve years, in other words an imbecile.” The witness expressed the opiniofi that the prisoner understood the difference between right .and wrong, but “did not fully appreciate the quality of the act or the consequence of the act.” There were two alienists who examined the prisoner at the instance of the State, and who testified that he was capable of appreciating the consequences of his act, as well as of distinguishing between right and wrong, and that he was not an imbecile; but they said that his intellectual development, according to certain tests, and as a result of improper environment and lack of education, was only equal to that ordinarily shown by a child of nine or ten years of age. In the course of his argument to the jury, Mr. Keech, one of the prisoner’s counsel, stated that one of five verdicts could be found, viz: “1st, Murder in the first degree; 2nd, Not guilty of murder in the first degree, but guilty of murder in the second degree; 3rd, Not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter; 4th, Not guilty; 5th, Not guilty by reason of insanity at the time' of the commission of the crime charged.” Thereupon the Court' interrupted the argument, ⁶²⁷ and said: “Mr. Keech, there can be only one of four verdicts rendered in this case, and I will instruct the jury as to the form thereof.” After the State’s Attorney had made the final argument, the Court directed the jury as follows: “Gentlemen of the jury, you can bring in any one of four verdicts in this case, namely: “Guilty of murder in the first degree; second, Not guilty of murder in the first degree, but guilty of murder in the second degree; third, Not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter; fourth, Not guilty.” An exception was reserved to this instruction as given under the circumstances just described. The statute relating to the subject of insanity as a defense in criminal cases provides: “When any person indicted for a crime or misdemeanor shall allege insanity or lunacy in his defense, the jury impanelled to try such person shall find by their verdict whether such person was, at the time of the commission of the offense, or still is insane, lunatic or otherwise,” Code, Art. 59, sec. 4.

It is the humane purpose of this and succeeding provisions of the Code to protect an offender who is mentally incapable of forming a criminal intent from being punished as if he were sane, and to ensure for him the custody and treatment best suited to his unfortunate condition. Devilbiss v. Bennett, 70 Md. 557 ; Spencer v. State, 69 Md. 41 . In the last cited case Chief Judge Alvey stated that the existence of criminal responsibility on the part of a person accused of crime depended upon the question whether he was “competent to form and execute a criminal design; or, in other words, if at the time of the alleged offense, he had capacity and reason sufficient to enable him to distinguish between right and wrong, and understand the nature and consequences of his act, as applied to himself, he is a responsible agent, and amenable to the criminal law of the land for the consequences of his act.” In the case at bar the effort on behalf of the prisoner was to show that he did not measure up to the standard of mental capacity and criminal accountability established by this Courf ⁶²⁸ in the decision from which we have just quoted. This was the point of the inquiry addressed to the alienist called for the accused, and the testimony of this expert furnished some support to the contention of the prisoner’s counsel that he was irresponsible.

The issue of insanity being thus distinctly presented, and the case not being wholly devoid of evidence tending to sustain the theory of the defense, it was the constitutional right of the prisoner to have the jury determine whether he was in fact and law criminally responsible for the heinous act for which he was being tried. The Court is given no authority to decide as to the effect or sufficiency of evidence submitted to the jury upon such an issue. Dick v. State, 107 Md. 11 ; Jessup v. State, 117 Md. 119 . It is expressly denied the right to determine a question of that nature by the