Opinion
No. 29,409.
Filed May 1, 1957.
APPEAL — Moot Question — Public Interest — Dismissal. — Where appellant was found not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the commission of a criminal offense and thereafter on September 24, 1954, committed to maximum security division of Beatty Memorial Hospital and on August 31, 1955, made application for discharge alleging certain parts of Sec. 9-1704a, Burns' 1956 Replacement, are unconstitutional and this appeal is from a denial thereof, but on April 22, 1957, filed an "Information to the Court" showing that appellant had been discharged on April 11, 1957, the question here presented is moot and unless such question is of public interest or affects the public generally such appeal will be dismissed and in the instant case there is no such interest.
From the Marion County Criminal Court Division No. 2, Saul I. Rabb, Judge.
Albert Lee Boeldt, appellant, brings this appeal from a denial of an application for discharge under Sec. 9-1704a, Burns' 1956 Replacement.
Appeal dismissed.
Ferdinand Samper, of Indianapolis, for appellant.
Edwin K. Steers, Attorney General, Owen S. Boling and John E. Hirschman, Deputy Attorneys General, for appellee.
REPORTER'S NOTE: See ante, p. 290.
Appellant was indicted on November 15, 1950, for the offense of inflicting physical injury while attempting to commit a robbery. On May 3, 1951, on a plea of guilty he was sentenced to the Indiana State Prison for a term of not less than ten nor more than twenty-five years.
Acts 1941, ch. 148, § 6, p. 447, being § 10-4101, Burns 1956 Replacement.
On June 16, 1953 appellant filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis which was granted on February 13, 1954, and the judgment entered on his plea of guilty was set aside and a new trial granted. Appellant was then tried by jury and found not guilty by reason of being insane at the time of the commission of the acts as charged in the indictment.
The court, on September 24, 1954, heard evidence as to defendant-appellant's insanity at the time of trial, and found that "the defendant [appellant] was and is insane, . . . and the recurrence of such an attack of insanity is highly probable;" and ordered him committed to the division for maximum security of the Dr. Norman M. Beatty Memorial Hospital.
Acts 1951, ch. 238, § 1, p. 682, being § 9-1704a, Burns' 1956 Replacement.
On August 31, 1955, appellant filed in the Marion Criminal Court, Division 2, his application for discharge alleging, inter alia, that he was not then "insane or psychotic, and there is little likelihood that he will become insane or psychotic again;" and that § 5 of ch. 298, Acts 1913, as amended by § 2, ch. 102, Acts 1927, being § 9-1705, Burns' 1956 Replacement, which provides the method of procedure for the discharge of any person committed under the provisions of § 1, ch. 238, Acts 1951, being § 9-1704a, Burns' 1956 Replacement, "in so far as it restricts the applicant to stated periods of time in which to make application for discharge" is unconstitutional.
On April 22, 1957, appellant filed herein an "Information to the Court," in which it is shown that subsequent to September 24, 1954, and more than two years from the date on which he was committed, appellant filed an application for discharge in the Marion Criminal Court, Division 2, which petition was granted and he was discharged on April 11, 1957.
Acts 1927, ch. 102, § 2, p. 268, being § 9-1705, Burns' 1956 Replacement.
Under these circumstances the question here presented is moot, and unless such question is of great public interest or affects the public generally this appeal should be dismissed. Chicago Eastern Ill. R. Co. v. Public Service Com'n (1956), 235 Ind. 387, 134 N.E.2d 57.
We are not convinced that the question here presented involves a matter of great public interest, or that it affects the public generally, hence the appeal herein will be dismissed.
Appeal dismissed.
NOTE — Reported in 141 N.E.2d 760.