Page:1887 Compiled Laws of Dakota Territory.pdf/1231

Insanity of Defendant.

§ 7563. Depositions, taken under a commission, may be read in evidence by either party on the trial, upon it being shown that the witness is unable to attend from any cause whatever; and the same objections may be taken to a question in the interrogatories, or to the answers in the deposition, as if the witness had been examined orally in court.

§ 7564. An act done by a person in a state of insanity cannot be punished as a public offense, nor can a person be tried, adjudged to punishment, or punished for a public offense, while he is insane.

§ 7565. When an indictment is called for trial, or upon conviction the defendant is brought up for judgment, if a doubt arise as to the sanity of the defendant, the court must order a jury to be impaneled from the jurors summoned and returned for the term, or who may be summoned by direction of the court as provided in sections 1330 to 7335, both inclusive, to inquire into the fact.

§ 7566. The trial of the indictment or the pronouncing the judgment, as the case may be, must be suspended until the question of insanity is determined by the verdict of the jury.

§ 7567. The trial of the question of insanity must proceed in the following order:

1. The counsel for the defendant must open the case and offer evidence in support of the allegation of insanity.

2. The counsel for the territory may then open their case and offer evidence in support thereof.

3. The parties may then respectively offer rebutting testimony only, unless the court, for good reason, in furtherance of justice, permit them to offer evidence upon their original case.

4. When the evidence is concluded, unless the case is submitted to the jury on either side or on both sides, without argument, the counsel for the territory must commence, and the defendant or his counsel may conclude, the argument to the jury.

5. If the indictment be for an offense punishable with death, two counsel on each side may argue the cause to the jury, in which case they must do so alternately. If it be for any other offense, the court may, in its discretion, restrict the argument to one counsel on each side.

6. The court must then charge the jury.

§ 7568. The provisions of sections 7372 and 7374, in respect to the duty of the court upon questions of law, and of the jury upon questions of fact, and the provisions of section 7405, in respect to the charge of the court to the jury, upon the trial of an indictment or information, apply to the question of insanity.

§ 7569. If the jury find the defendant sane, the trial of the indictment must proceed, or judgment may be pronounced, as the case may be.