People v. Lee

The appellant Francis Lee entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to a charge of grand theft, stealing an automobile, and upon trial before a jury was found to be sane at the time of the commission of the act constituting the crime. Thereafter a motion for new trial was made and denied, and he was sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison. This appeal was then taken from the judgment and the order denying his motion for a new trial.

In support of his plea and as part of his case, he offered in evidence a petition for the appointment of a guardian, filed in the superior court in 1925, “in the matter of the guardianship of Francis E. Lee, incompetent”, together with the order appointing guardian and the letters of guardianship, all of which the court excluded, upon the objection of the People. The ruling is assigned as error. None of the excluded papers were made part of the record on appeal, however, and for aught we can say the guardianship proceeding may have been based upon some of the bodily ailments or weaknesses mentioned in section 1767 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which defines the word “incompetent”, and not upon a charge that appellant was insane.

The…