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294 So. 2d 721

Docket No. 73-104.

Emerson v. State

Eugene EMERSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1974-05-17

Relies on 98 So. 2d 795 - Wells v. State · Moses v. Englander · 241 So. 2d 194 - Rodriguez v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1974-05-17

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently January 2002

7 state decisions

401974198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, Norman J. Kapner, Asst. Public Defender, and Bruce Zeidel, Legal Intern, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

¶2Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Nelson E. Bailey, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

¶3DOWNEY, Judge.

¶4Appellant was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life imprisonment. The sole point on appeal warranting consideration is the sufficiency of the evidence to overcome appellant's defense of insanity.

¶5Appellant had been adjudicated incompetent prior to the homicide involved herein. Thus, his plea of insanity placed the burden of proof upon the state to show he was sane at the time of the homicide. Wells v. State, Fla. 1957, 98 So.2d 795; Johnson v. State, Fla.App. 1960, 118 So.2d 234. We have carefully reviewed the testimony bearing on the question of appellant's sanity at the time of the offense and are impressed with its inadequacy to prove appellant's sanity within the limits of the McNaughton rule beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt. Accordingly, the judgment of conviction and sentence is reversed and remanded for a new trial.

¶6Though not raised in the briefs, we note the only indication in the record of an adjudication of competency to stand trial is a docket entry that such a finding was made. It is our view that Rule 3.210, RCrP, 33 F.S.A., and Rodriguez v. State, Fla.App. 1970, 241 So.2d 194, require a written order of the court determining the defendant to be competent to stand trial.

¶7Reversed and remanded.

¶8CROSS, J., and NANCE, L. CLAYTON, Associate Judge, concur.

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