Stanley Forman Reed

“ Testimony of psychiatrists to support petitioner's contention was introduced. An instruction charging the jury to consider the personality of the petitioner in determining intent, premeditation and deliberation was sought and refused.
From the evidence of the psychiatrists for the defense, the jury might have concluded the petitioner was mentally somewhat below the average with minor stigmata of mental subnormalcy. An expert testified that he was a psychopathic personality [2] of a predominantly aggressive type. ”

“ The errors presented by the petition for certiorari and urged at our bar were, in substance, that the trial court refused to instruct the jurors that they should consider the evidence of the accused's psychopathic aggressive tendencies, low m otional response and borderline mental deficiency to determine whether he was guilty of murder in the first or in the second degree. The aggregate of these factors admittedly was not enough to support a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity. [1] Deliberation and premeditation are necessary elements of first degree murder. ”

“ No one doubts that there are more possible classifications of mentality than the sane and the insane . White, Insanity and the Criminal Law 89. Criminologists and psychologists have weighed the advantages and disadvantages of the adoption of the theory of partial responsibility as a basis of the jury's determination of the degree of crime of which a mentally deficient defendant may be guilty. ”

“ Eaton, Mo.Sup., 154 S.W.2d 767.↑ The reference to the establishment of degrees of murder in Hopt v. People, 104 U.S. 631, 634, 26 L.Ed. 873, may indicate a different point of view. The Court was there considering intoxication under a statutory requirement that the intoxication should be taken into consideration by the jury in determining the degree of the offense.↑ We are indebted to the respondent's brief for the collection of cases. Those accepting the petitioner's theory are: Andersen v. ”

“ State v. Schilling, 1920, 95 N.J.L. 145, 148, 112 A. 400; People v. Moran, 1928, 249 N.Y. 179, 180, 163 N.E. 553; Jones v. Commonwealth, 1874, 75 Pa. 403, 408, 410; State v. Green, 1931, 78 Utah 580, 602, 6 P.2d 177; State v. ”