State v. Maish

185 P.2d 486, 29 Wash. 2d 52, 173 A.L.R. 382, 1947 Wash. LEXIS 354
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 9, 1947
DocketNo. 30238.
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 185 P.2d 486 (State v. Maish) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Maish, 185 P.2d 486, 29 Wash. 2d 52, 173 A.L.R. 382, 1947 Wash. LEXIS 354 (Wash. 1947).

Opinion

Jeffers, J.

On December 23, 1946, defendant, Joseph Henry Maish, was, by an information filed by the prosecuting attorney for Clark county, charged with the crime of murder in the first degree, committed as follows, to wit:

“That he, the said Joseph Henry Maish, did, in the county of Clark, state of Washington, on or about the 21st day of December, 1946, while in an attempt to commit rape, and while withdrawing from the scene of a burglary, did unlawfully and feloniously kill a human being, namely, LaDonna Toscas, by then and there stabbing her with a knife about the throat and back inflicting wounds which were the immediate and proximate cause of her death which occurred on the 21st day of December, 1946.”

*53 Defendant was duly arraigned on January 31, 1947, and, being personally present in court and represented by counsel, entered an oral plea of not guilty to the information, and, in addition, filed the following written plea:

“Comes now the defendant herein in open court by and through his undersigned attorneys of record, and in addition to the plea of not guilty, files herein his plea as follows:
“ (1) That at the time and place of the commission of the crime charged, the said defendant was insane or mentally irresponsible.
“(2) That said insanity or mental irresponsibility still exists.
“ (3) That at said time and place of the commission of said act charged, the defendant was motivated by an irresistible impulse.”

The cause came on for hearing before the court and jury on March 24,1947. Many witnesses were sworn and exhibits introduced on behalf of both the state and defendant.

While defendant did not take the stand, three statements made by him were introduced in evidence without objection. Two of these statements were made to police officers of Vancouver the night of the alleged murder, and the third was made to a juvenile officer the morning after the killing, or on December 22, 1946.

At the close of the case, the court gave to the jury, among others, the following instructions:

“Instruction No. 6: In addition to the general plea of ‘Not guilty’, the defendant has interposed a special plea setting up that at the time and place of the commission of the crime charged, the said defendant was insane or mentally irresponsible, and that said insanity or mental irresponsibility still exists.
“The burden of proving this special defense rests upon the defendant and the measure of proof required of him in this respect is proof by a fair preponderance of the evidence. Unless the defendant proves this defense to you by a fair preponderance of the evidence the defendant is presumed to be sane and mentally responsible and to intend the natural and usual consequences of his own acts.”
“Instruction No. 10: With regard to defendant’s plea that he was insane or mentally irresponsible at the time of the commission of the act charged against him, you are in *54 structed that it will be your duty to find him not guilty by reason of such insanity or mental irresponsibility if you find from the evidence that at that time he did not have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong with respect to that act. If you find that his mind was so deranged and disordered that he did not have the mental power to choose . between right and wrong with respect to that act and that such mental disorder or defect was the efficient cause of his act and that he would not have committed the act but for that affection, then he is not responsible in law and should be acquitted.
“You are cautioned, however, that one who is otherwise sane will not be excused from a crime he has committed while his reason or will power are temporarily suspended not by an inherent defect or disorder of the mind but by. anger, fear, lust, or other passion. So-called emotional insanity will not excuse a crime.”

No exceptions to the above instructions were taken by defendant, nor in fact to any of the instructions given,, and it follows that such instructions became the law of the case on the issues covered by them.

Defendant requested the trial court to give the following instruction on his theory of irresistible impulse:

“You are instructed that if you believe from the evidence that at the time of committing the acts charged in the information, the defendant was suffering from such a perverted and deranged condition of his mental faculties as to render him incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, or unconscious at such time of the nature of the act charged in the indictment while committing the same, or where although conscious of them and able to distinguish between right and wrong, and to know the acts were wrong, yet his mind and his will the governing power of his mind was, otherwise involuntarily, so completely destroyed that his action was not subject to it but beyond his control, it will be your duty to acquit the defendant, and in such case your verdict shall be not guilty.”

The trial court refused to give the requested instruction.

On March 28, 1947, the jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged and, by a special verdict, ordered the death penalty to be imposed.

*55 A motion for new trial was made by defendant and denied, and, on April 7, 1947, judgment and sentence was pronounced and filed, in accordance with the verdict and special verdict.

Defendant has appealed from the judgment entered, and his only assignment of error is that the court erred in refusing to give the requested instruction.

Rem. Rev. Stat., § 2108 [P.P.C. § 121-21], provides:

“There are but three pleas to the indictment or information: A plea of,—
“1. Guilty;
“2. Not guilty;
“3. A former judgment of conviction or acquittal of the offense charged, which may be pleaded with or without the plea of not guilty.”

There is also what might be termed a fourth plea. Rem. Rev. Stat., § 2174 [P.P.C. § 133-3], provides:

“When it is desired to interpose the defense of insanity or mental irresponsibility on behalf of one charged with a crime, the defendant, his counsel or other person authorized by law to appear and act for him, shall at the time of pleading to the information or indictment file a plea in writing in addition to the plea or pleas required or permitted by other laws than this, setting up (1) his'insanity or mental irresponsibility at the time of the commission of the crime charged, and (2) whether the insanity or mental irresponsibility still exists, or (3) whether the defendant has become sane or mentally responsible between the time of the commission of the crime and the time of the trial.

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Bluebook (online)
185 P.2d 486, 29 Wash. 2d 52, 173 A.L.R. 382, 1947 Wash. LEXIS 354, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-maish-wash-1947.