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Constitutional Law-Due Process-Right Of Prisoner Condemned To Death To Hearing On His Sanity, E. Blythe Stason Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner, sentenced to death in California for murder, obtained a judicial stay of execution on the ground that he had become insane since sentence had been passed. Eighteen days later he was certified as sane by the medical superintendent of the state hospital, who made this determination by an ex parte examination without giving petitioner notice or opportunity of hearing. A new date for execution was then set. The applicable statute provided a procedure, enforceable by mandamus, whereby a sentenced prisoner could obtain a hearing on his sanity. The petitioner, without seeking mandamus to compel the warden to act, applied …