People v. Wolff

Defendant appeals from a judgment imposing a sentence of life imprisonment (with recommendation that he be placed in a hospital for the criminally insane) after he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to a charge of murder, the jury found that he was legally sane at the time of the commission of the offense, and the court determined the killing to be murder in the first degree.

Defendant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict of sanity, that the court gave conflicting instructions on the presumptions of sanity and of the continuance of prior “permanent” insanity,…