People v. Brown

112 N.E.2d 122, 415 Ill. 23, 1953 Ill. LEXIS 315
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 23, 1953
Docket32576
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 112 N.E.2d 122 (People v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Brown, 112 N.E.2d 122, 415 Ill. 23, 1953 Ill. LEXIS 315 (Ill. 1953).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Maxwell

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, John Daniel Brown, was indicted for murder in Vermilion County and a jury found him guilty of manslaughter. The trial court overruled his motion for hew trial, entered judgment and passed sentence. Defendant assigns the verdict, judgment and sentence of manslaughter as error and contends the trial court erred in submitting to the jury instructions pertaining to manslaughter. Defendant contends that under the evidence he was either guilty of murder, or not guilty by reason of insanity.

On October 5, 1950, defendant shot and killed his wife, and on the following day was indicted for the crime of murder. On October 7, 1950, defendant was present in the circuit court of Vermilion County, given a copy of the indictment, and he then requested counsel. A few days later, the public defender, appointed as his attorney, filed a petition in the trial court alleging defendant was insane to the extent that he was unable to plead to the indictment and requested a jury hearing on this issue. On October 20, 1950, the .jury, impaneled to hear evidence on said issüe, returned a verdict finding defendant insane at the time of said hearing, and he was accordingly committed to the Security Hospital at Chester until he recovered from his insanity.

On January 4, 1952, defendant was returned to Vermilion County. On January 21, 1952, counsel for defendant applied for a jury hearing to determine the mental capacity of the defendant to plead to the indictment and to defend. A jury heard evidence presented on this issue on February 8, 1952, and rendered a verdict finding that defendant was on said date not an insane person. The court entered judgment on said verdict. Thereafter, on the same date, defendant was arraigned, given a copy of the indictment, a list of the witnesses, and entered a plea of not guilty. A trial of defendant was commenced March 10, 1952, and the jury’s verdict found him guilty of manslaughter. Defendant’s sole defense at the trial was that he was insane at the time of killing his wife. No motion in arrest of judgment was filed. A motion for new trial was filed and denied by the lower court, and defendant was accordingly sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary.

It is undisputed that on the morning of October 5, 1950, defendant shot his wife with a revolver inflicting a wound in the head which almost completely severed the spinal cord, killing her instantly. Another shot was fired, striking her in the head but did not penetrate the skull. Defendant’s brother and mother lived in the same house in Danville. The mother heard the shot fired, ran to the room occupied by defendant and his wife, and saw the deceased lying on the floor of the bathroom adjoining their bedroom. She immediately called the brother who quickly responded and found defendant sitting on the bed with a gun in his hands. The brother took this gun, put it in his hip pocket and called the police. At this time defendant told his brother, “Joe, if you had stayed out of here, I would have finished it all.” The police arrived shortly thereafter. As his brother was about to give the gun to the police, defendant remarked, “Joe, that gun’s cocked.” The brother then carefully removed the gun from his hip pocket and noticed that the gun was cocked. The gun was fully loaded except for the two discharged shells. Defendant was then taken to the Danville police station.

Officer Christy, who had known defendant for several years, testified that at the time of the arrest he asked defendant why he had shot his wife and received the reply, “She told me she was going to leave me.” Coroner Cole testifying to the same conversation, stated that defendant talked quite a bit for approximately two or two and one-half hours in the west room of the police station in the presence of officers and the State’s Attorney and that defendant then said that deceased had talked about packing her things and leaving him because he had started drinking again.

The defendant, a mechanic and welder, thirty-two years of age at the time of trial, became afflicted with Raynaud’s disease approximately two years before the killing. This disease is a severe paroxysmal, nervous disorder causing disturbance of the circulation, generally in the fingers, causing intense pain. In defendant’s case it caused the ends of his fingers to have broken sores, running pus, with symptoms of gangrene. Defendant complained that for several months prior to the shooting he could not work and sleep and that he was required to use narcotics and opiates to relieve his pain and to obtain a little rest. He told of traveling to various cities and consulting various doctors for the purpose of obtaining drugs. At Hines Hospital he was first denied narcotics and later given some to relieve his pain, and while there a sympathectomy was performed to relieve his pain. This operation consisted of cutting certain nerves along the spine that controlled the nerves to the fingers. The operation was apparently unsuccessful and failed to bring about the desired relief. Certain of the drugs taken by defendant were by mouth and some by hypodermic needle; some of the drugs taken were dilaudid, demerol and barbiturates. The drugs appeared to give but temporary relief and were taken in large and excessive quantities. Drs. English, Bennett and Jordan, the latter a psychiatrist, testified defendant was insane at the time of the shooting. Dr. Bennett stated defendant was insane for some time prior to the occurrence. Dr. Jordan classified defendant as a case of schizophrenia or dementia praecox. Dr. Jordan based his opinion for this classification on the fact that he did not believe defendant could possibly realize the type of pain of which he complained.

Dr. William H. Haines, a psychiatrist and expert in mental and nervous diseases in this State, testifying for defendant, stated that in his opinion defendant was not a case of dementia praecox or schizophrenia and that if defendant was insane at the time of the shooting the insanity was produced from the excessive use of drugs. However, on cross-examination Dr. Haines testified that if, shortly after the shooting, defendant told his brother to be careful because the gun was cocked, and that the gun in fact was cocked, and that further, in making a statement to the officers and State’s Attorney within a period one and a half hours after the shooting, defendant displayed an accurate awareness and knowledge of where he was, his wife’s name, his mother’s name and various other details of his previous history, he then was of the opinion that the defendant was in contact with his environment and that he was sane. It was stipulated at the time that the statement made by defendant at the police station was made within one and a half hours after the shooting, and it was further stipulated that officers Meeker, Scarlet, Christy and Cole were present at the time and, from their observations of defendant’s general demeanor, it was their opinion that defendant was sane.

At the time of trial it appeared that the defendant had not only recovered mentally but had recovered from the Raynaud’s disease condition and drug addiction.

Various assignments of error are now urged in this court by the defendant in respect to the trial court’s giving of certain instructions pertaining to the defense of insanity. We have carefully examined each of such instructions and are unable to find any prejudicial error.

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Bluebook (online)
112 N.E.2d 122, 415 Ill. 23, 1953 Ill. LEXIS 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-brown-ill-1953.