Ray v. State

262 A.2d 643, 1970 Del. LEXIS 255
CourtSupreme Court of Delaware
DecidedJanuary 30, 1970
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 262 A.2d 643 (Ray v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ray v. State, 262 A.2d 643, 1970 Del. LEXIS 255 (Del. 1970).

Opinion

HERRMANN, Justice.

After non-jury trial, the defendant was found guilty of robbery. The facts relevant to the various grounds of this appeal will be stated as each ground is discussed.

I.

The defendant was not arraigned. It is argued, on the basis of State v. Trabbold, Del.Super., 8 Terry 391, 91 A.2d 537 (1952), that the Superior Court committed error fatal to the conviction by reason of its failure to arraign the defendant.

It appears that, prior to the commencement of the trial, the defendant’s attorney filed the required notice 1 of the defend *645 ant’s intent to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of mental illness. Thereafter, the defendant’s attorney entered that plea on behalf of the defendant and in his presence prior to trial. The trial proceeded on the basis of that defense, and was participated in throughout by the defendant and his attorney, although the defendant did not take the stand. No objection was made to the failure to arraign until after the conviction.

The general rule prevailing in this jurisdiction since Trabbold has been that failure to arraign a defendant is not necessarily fatal to his conviction; that a waiver of arraignment may be implied from the defendant’s participation in the trial and other attendant circumstances. We approve that general rule.

The question, then, is whether a waiver of arraignment should be implied under the facts and circumstances of this case. We hold here, in agreement with the Trial Court, that an implied waiver arose where the defendant’s attorney entered a plea on behalf of the defendant and in his presence, where the trial was permitted to proceed on the basis of that plea as if an arraignment had been held, and where there was no objection made for want of an arraignment until after conviction. See Garland v. Washington, 232 U.S. 642, 34 S.Ct. 456, 58 L.Ed. 772 (1914).

II.

The defendant contends that the Trial Court erred in imposing upon him the burden of establishing the defense of mental illness, to the satisfaction of the trier of fact, under the standards set forth in Longoria v. State, Del.Supr., 3 Storey 311, 168 A.2d 695 (1961). The facts relevant to this argument are these:

In Indiana, the defendant was charged with armed robbery, and the shooting of a policewoman in the commission thereof, in June 1966. He was immediately committed to a mental hospital in Indiana where he received 52 electric shock treatments during the period August to December 1966. In July 1967, the defendant was diagnosed as “schizophrenic, paranoid type” and “not sane within the law”. For this reason the defendant was never tried on the Indiana charge. In November 1967, he was transferred to the Delaware State Hospital under the Interstate Compact. Upon admission there, the “initial impression” of the examining psychiatrist was “schizophrenic reaction, paranoid type in social remission”. In January 1968, after treatment, the defendant was released from Delaware State Hospital with a diagnosis of “personality trait disturbance, emotional unstable personality”; and with instructions to continue medication and to take out-patient treatment at the Mental Hygiene Clinic. The defendant received no further treatment after release. The instant robbery was committed about six months later.

The defendant argues in this connection that there is a presumption of continuing mental illness once established; that in view of the finding of mental illness in the Indiana hospital in 1967, the defendant should have had the benefit of that presumption and the burden should have been upon the State to rebut it.

We have recently recognized the presumption of continuing mental illness. Mills v. State, Del.Supr., 256 A.2d 752 (1969). But the presumption is not applicable as an element of defense in this case by reason of the finding of competency by the staff at the Delaware State Hospital in January 1968 — a finding of equal dignity to the earlier finding of mental illness by the staff at the Indiana hospital, there having been no formal adjudication of the matter in either place. Accordingly, at the time of the instant offense in June 1968, the coverage of the presumption of continuing mental illness, which may have otherwise arisen from the Indiana finding, was removed by the superseding Delaware finding.

We hold, therefore, that there was no error in imposing upon the defendant the *646 burden prescribed by Longoria v. State, Del.Supr., 3 Storey 311, 168 A.2d 695 (1961) : the burden of establishing by a preponderance of the evidence, to the satisfaction of the trier of fact, that at the time of the specific offense mental illness deprived him either of the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong as to that offense, or of sufficient will power to choose whether he would do the act or refrain from doing it.

III.

The defendant contends that, under the evidence in this record, the Trial Court erred in concluding that the defendant failed to sustain the burden of proof imposed by Longoria.

The Trial Court found the expert testimony as to mental illness to be “almost evenly balanced”; and, in connection with that issue, it proceeded to examine in detail the evidence of the defendant’s total course of conduct in the planning and commission of the instant offense. It appears that the Trial Court’s conclusion as to the defense of mental illness was based, for the most part, upon the examination of such facts.

The defense of mental illness is a factual issue to be decided by the trier of fact. Longoria v. State, Del.Supr., 3 Storey 311, 168 A.2d 695 (1961); 11 Del.C. § 4701. If there is substantial evidence to support the finding of the Court sitting as the trier of fact, we will not disturb the finding unless it is clearly wrong. In this connection, we consider the scope of review in a non-jury criminal case to be substantially the same as in a non-jury civil case. See Nardo v. Nardo, Del.Supr., 209 A.2d 905, 913, fn. 4 (1965); Lank v. Steiner, Del.Supr., 224 A.2d 242 (1966); Art. 4 Del.Const. § 11, Del.C.Ann.

There is substantial evidence in the record of this case to support the Trial Court’s finding and conclusion as to the defense of not guilty by reason of mental illness. We cannot say that such finding and conclusion were clearly wrong. Therefore, we will not substitute our judgment for that of the Trial Court on the issue.

IV.

The defendant argues that, by reason of his mental condition, (a) an out-of-court identification by the victim violated the rule of United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
262 A.2d 643, 1970 Del. LEXIS 255, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ray-v-state-del-1970.