Wisner v. Director of Patuxent Institution

Per Curiam. The applicant, Adam Wisner, seeks leave to appeal from an order of the Criminal Court of Baltimore, dated April 6, 1962, recommitting him to Patuxent Institution, which was entered in accordance with the finding of a jury, in proceedings to redetermine the question of Wisner’s defective delinquency, that he was a defective delinquent. He had first been found to be such by another jury in November, 1959, following his commitment to Patuxent for examination and report in November, 1958. This first commitment (for examination) had been upon his conviction on a plea of guilty to a charge of larceny of goods of a value of $100.00 or more (a television set valued at $129.95), for which offense he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.

The applicant asserts four grounds upon which he seeks leave to appeal. One of them is, in substance, that the Defective Delinquent Law was not applicable to him because he had not been convicted of two crimes committed in this State on or after June 1, 1954. This contention is untenable. The offense for which he was convicted and sentenced was committed in this State in 1958 and was (and is) a felony under Code (1957), Art. 27, sec. 340.

That alone was (and is) a sufficient basis for invoking the Defective Delinquent Law. See Code (1957), Art. 31B, secs. 6 (a) and 16 (as in force in 1958 and 1959), and