United States v. Harold White

White was convicted by a jury on six counts of bank robbery, 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a), and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. His sole defense in the District Court was insanity. On this appeal, he urges several grounds for reversal. Inasmuch as we agree with the contention that the evidence was insufficient to support the determination, beyond a reasonable doubt, that White was legally sane at the time he committed the robberies, we need not reach his other points.

Our conclusion is compelled by the lack of any testimony or the existence of any evidence tending to show that White was legally sane according to the standards adopted by this court in Wade v. United States, 426 F.2d 64 (9th Cir. 1970). There, we held that

Id. at 71 . We also held that Wade should apply to cases wherein judgments of conviction were not yet final when our Wade opinion was filed; thus, the Wade test is applicable here.

A careful review of the record reveals unmistakably that the Government failed to meet its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that White was legally sane at the time of the alleged crimes. The medical evidence of mental disease was overwhelming, and the evidence of legal…