Simmons v. Director of Patuxent Institution

On March 19, 1958, Wilfred C. Simmons, the applicant, pleaded guilty before Chief Judge Harris in the Circuit Court for Allegany County to a charge of maiming a woman and was sentenced to serve five years in the Maryland House of Correction. In later proceedings the trial judge characterized the maiming as sadistic and as one of the most cruel and unwarranted attacks that had come to his attention. The applicant was transferred later to Patuxent Institution for examination, and, after a hearing in the Circuit Court for Allegany County, he was on April 10, 1959, found to be a defective…