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pike aw ta grounds. For Instance, Mrs. Kath- arin ynes, who and’s mistress, was rele: from St. Elizabeths Hospital 43 days after she was found not guilty on grounds of insanity. She wes the Bret commited under the then new law. Meanwhile, the Court of Ap peals Was busy interpreting, ex- plaining, expanding and defending the Durham mile. A complicating factor was added in 1957 when Bt. Elizabeths decided that a “sociopathic personalit?” was ® mental disorder. Thus, those pre- viously classed as sane but anti- social were brought under the ental disease classification i Durham rule. — . ore Acquittals Result {This seemed te open the dodF wider to acquittals via the insan- ity route and the parade of “so- ciopathic personalities’’ grew. There was rebellion within the Court of Appeals itself, pointed comments that no other court was following the Durbain rule and abortive efforts on Capitol Hill to replace the Durham Tule with legislation. Progressively, however, insanity acquittals began to look less at- tractive to the accused. District Court judges, supported by the Court of Appeals, were increas- ingly disinclined to make a re- yolying door of St. Elizabeths. The very defendant who was acquitted as a “sociopathic per- gonslity,” John D. Leach, was in- volved in a landmark appellate decision on the question of get- ting released from the hospital after his acquittal. In & unani- mous opinion, the court of ap- Reals maple a distinctiog bet n being sane and being . eae nd , normal mental condition as make the individual dangerous himself or the community in reasonably foreseeable future. “ Court Declines Review oe 5 iT; F E dil has now agreed to examine. , After the Leach case, the of Appeals took om a series 0 challenging the commi mint law as @ growing number 0: acquitted on insanity groun d it was easier to get into 8@ Elizabeths than to get out. Where the hospital superintend- ent refused to certify them for release, they were free to seek re-' lease via habeas corpus proceed~- ings. That's wer most of the | tests came. - The Court of ‘appeals standard emerging from these tests pro- : vides that the one seeking release must show that he has recovered his sanity and that the recovery has reached the point where he: has no abnormal mental condi-. tion which in the reasonably fore- seeable future would endanger], him or the public if he were re- | "eer tree, me series of decisions,