Coe Kane v. United States

On November 26, 1966, Coe Kane, an enrolled member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe of Indians, shot and killed his wife, an enrolled member of the Hualapai Tribe of Indians, at their residence within the Fort Apache Indian Reservation at Canyon Day, Arizona. He was indicted and tried before a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona on a charge of murder committed by an Indian within Indian country ( 18 U.S.C. §§ 1111 , 1151 and 1153 (1964)).

The jury found Kane guilty of the included crime of voluntary manslaughter. See 18 U.S.C. § 1112 (a) (1964). He was sentenced to imprisonment for ten years with the provision that he may be eligible for parole at the discretion of the board of parole pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4208 (a) (2) (1964). Kane then took this appeal.

Kane’s principal defenses at the trial were insanity arising from a chronic undifferentiated schizophrenic disorder, and temporary insanity by reason of pathological intoxication. At the close of the trial counsel for Kane, proceeding under Rule 29, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, moved for judgment of acquittal. He did so on the ground that, under the evidence, Kane established the…