State v. DiFraia

This is an indictment for armed robbery to which the defendant pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. The case was tried to a superior court justice and a jury which returned a verdict of guilty as charged. It is before this court on the defendant’s bill of exceptions, the sole exception being that taken to the trial justice’s denial of the defendant’s motion for a new trial.

None of the ultimate facts is disputed. They establish that in July 1949, defendant was hospitalized in the psychiatric division of the Charles V. Chapin hospital in Providence, where his condition was…