Jenkins v. Director of Patuxent Institution

Brune, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The applicant, James Robert Jenkins, was determined to be a defective delinquent after a hearing in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County before Judge Bowie and a jury. As a result of the jury’s finding he was committed to Patuxent Institution, and he now seeks leave to appeal. Jenkins had been convicted of assault with intent to kill a police officer and was sent to Patuxent for examination on the basis of that conviction and his past record, and in accordance with suggestions of the Superintendent of the Clifton T. Perkins State Hospital and of the Director of Forensic Psychiatry of the Department of Mental Hygiene.

(These suggestions were made in connection with the examination of Jenkins at Perkins in 1962 resulting from his plea of insanity and were, of course, contingent upon his being convicted of the offense charged.) He had previously had a psychiatric examination at Spring Grove in 1959 in connection with an earlier case, when he was also found mentally responsible. Other hospitalizations are noted at two Veterans’ Hospitals — one at Perry Point in 1955 and others at Martinsburg, West Virginia in 1947 and 1956, but their records were not available. Jenkins’ past record included several other convictions for assault on police officers, and several other convictions for disorderly conduct, intoxication, or both. The events leading to his last conviction occurred about two months after his release from prison at the expiration of his last previous sentence for assaulting an officer, when the officer assaulted had come to the home of Jenkins’ family as a result of a call for police help.

The reports of Patuxent and of the independent psychiatrist appointed at Jenkins’ request agreed that Jenkins was a defec ⁶⁸⁰ tive delinquent, and the jury so found after what is described by his counsel as a full hearing. This application is based solely upon certain questions with regard to prior offenses asked him on cross-examination by the State’s Attorney. He was asked (a) whether he had chased a woman around a basement with a knife attempting to inflict injury on her and (b) whether on other occasions he had attempted to inflict harm on his parents. The record before us (including the