Miller v. Superintendent of Spring Grove State Hospital

Collins, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an application for leave to appeal from the refusal of a writ of habeas corpus directed to Judge Frederick L. Cobourn of the Circuit Court for Harford County. It appears that the petitioner has filed ten prior applications for this writ, resulting in two hearings and eight refusals. ⁶⁶⁰ On November 5, 1941, petitioner was arraigned before Honorable Eugene O’Dunne, Associate Judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, on a charge of assault with intent to kill. The Court determined that the petitioner (defendant in that case) was insane and he was committed to Spring Grove State Hospital.

The petitioner bases his request for the issuance of this writ upon the following contentions: (1) That he was not allowed to confront witnesses against him; (2) That there was provocation for his assault; (3) That when first brought up for trial in October, 1941, the case was postponed upon the word of one witness; (4) That had he been convicted and sentenced to prison his term would have expired; (5) That he has the right by application for writ of habeas corpus to have the Court determine his sanity; (6) That he was denied due process of law in that the trial court accepted the word of one doctor as to his mental condition; and (7) That the question of his sanity should have been left to a jury. In Miller v. Superintendent of Spring Grove State Hospital, 190 Md. 741 , 60 A. 2d 189 , we passed upon a previous application of this petitioner for leave to appeal from the denial of a writ of habeas corpus and pointed out in that case that: “as it does not appear that the petitioner here is ‘detained for or confined as the result of a prosecution for a criminal offense’ this Court has no jurisdiction on appeal and the application must be denied. Acts of 1945, Chapter 702, Section 3 D, Code (1947 Supp.), Art. 42, Sec. 3 D; Bailey v.