Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

387 F.2d 367

Docket No. 24645.

White v. United States

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided Dec. 28, 1967.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 31, 1968.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1967-12-28

3 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“A verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity means that the accused will be confined in a hospital for the mentally ill until the superintendent has certified, and the court is satisfied, that such person has recovered his sanity and will not in the reasonable future be dangerous to himself or to others, in which event and at which time the court shall order his release either unconditionally or under such conditions as the court may see fit.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including United States v. Alvarez

“were consonant with pleas available to defendants under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including United States v. McCracken

Relies on McDonald v. United States · Lyles v. United States · Pope v. United States

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1967-12-28

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently June 1996

15 federal appellate · 1 state decisions

801967197019801990decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Stanford Harrell, Fort Worth, Tex., for appellant.

¶2Robert S. Travis, Asst. U. S. Atty., Fort Worth, Tex., Melvin M. Diggs, U.

¶3S. Atty., William O. Callaway, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., for appellee.

¶4Before TUTTLE and GEWIN, Circuit Judges, and HUNTER, District Judge.

¶5PER CURIAM:

¶6Bunchie White was convicted of perjury. The issue of insanity was asserted in the trial court. No complaint is made about the instructions given as to the proper test of criminal responsibility. The errors specified on appeal are:

1. The failure of the Court to provide for a specific (“not guilty by reason of insanity”) finding.1
2. The failure of the Court to advise the jury of what would happen to the defendant in the event of such a finding.

¶7The Court was required to provide for the special verdict and to advise the jury of the effect, appellant argues, by the cases of Lyles v. United States, 108 U.S.App.D.C. 22, 254 F.2d 725, 728 (1957) and McDonald v. United State, 114 U.S.App.D.C. 120, 312 F.2d 847 (1962). We cannot agree. Both of these cases had to do with a District of Columbia statute which precisely provides for a verdict of “not guilty by reason of insanity.”

¶8The jurors decide the facts in accordance with the rules of law as stated in the instructions of the Court. The *368Court imposes sentence or makes such other disposition of a defendant as required by the law. This is eminently sensible and in the absence of a statutory requirement there is no duty on the Court to inform the jury of what would happen to a defendant if this or that finding is made by them. (Pope v. United States, 298 F.2d 507 (5 Cir., 1962).) The guilty-not guilty alternatives offered the jury by the trial court were consonant with pleas available to defendants under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

¶9The judgment is

¶10Affirmed.

/387/f2d/367 · .json · Public domain