Murder Case Dissent Filed, Evening Star (Article, April 1958)
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A dissent from the February conviction reversal in the Jim B. Edmonds murder case was filed yesterday by Judge Wilbur K. Miller of the U.S. Court of Appeals here.
Judge Miller filed his views even though the Appellate Court vacated the reversal in an order handed down Wednesday, setting the case for a re-hearing before the full nine-man bench of the court at some future date.
Edmonds, a 19-year-old Marine private, was convicted here in April, 1957, for the murder of American University student George P. LeFebvre in November, 1956.
In his dissent filed yesterday, Judge Miller took exception to the reasons given for reversal by the appellate Judges George T. Washington and David L. Bazelon.
They maintained that a psychiatrist should not have been allowed to give trial testimony that went beyond Edmonds mental condition and touched on the issue of his guilt or innocence. Another point for reversal was evidence showing that Edmonds' father--like the Marine--had been convicted 13 years ago after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder of Edmonds' mother.
Judge Miller said the testimony by Dr. William G. Cushard merely repeated earlier testimony by an FBI agent that Edmonds did not like the manner in which Lefebvre approached him with homosexual advances.
The jurist also criticized the second point for reversal, saying the statement about the disposition of the father's case was relevant to Edmonds' own mental condition--a perfectly proper attempt to refute Edmonds' own claim of insanity.
