Source: https://openjurist.org/967/f2d/877/geschwendt-v-m-ryan
Timestamp: 2018-11-18 04:05:27
Document Index: 276664771

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1', '§ 971', '§ 1351', '§ 2', '§ 20002', '§ 1351', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 20002', '§ 1722', '§ 1351', '§ 4413', '§ 314']

967 F2d 877 Geschwendt v. M Ryan | OpenJurist
967 F. 2d 877 - Geschwendt v. M Ryan
967 F2d 877 Geschwendt v. M Ryan
967 F.2d 877
George GESCHWENDT, Appellant,
Joseph M. RYAN, Superintendent (Warden); and the Attorney
General of the State of Pennsylvania: Ernest
Preate; and the District Attorney of
No. 91-1244.
Elizabeth K. Ainslie (argued), Philadelphia, Pa., for appellant.
Stephen B. Harris (argued), Chief of Appeals, Office of Dist. Atty., Doylestown, Pa., for appellee.
Argued Sept. 5, 1991
Reargued May 6, 1992
We will only summarize the facts as developed at the trial in the Court of Common Pleas in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, for they are not in dispute and are set forth in the opinion of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on Geschwendt's direct appeal from his conviction. See Commonwealth v. Geschwendt, 500 Pa. 120, 123-24, 454 A.2d 991, 992-93 (1982). Prior to March 12, 1976, Geschwendt purchased a .22 caliber gun and falsely reported to the local police that it was stolen on the day of the purchase. Geschwendt at that time resided with his mother and brother in Bensalem Township directly across the street from a residence occupied by the Abt family. On March 12, 1976, after his brother and mother had gone to work, Geschwendt broke into the Abt's empty home. Geschwendt waited for the Abts to return and, as they did so, using the gun he had reported stolen, he shot and killed five of them, as well as a boyfriend of one of the victims. Geschwendt had intended to kill the entire family, but he left before he completed his mission, because he was alarmed by the constant ringing of the telephone. While Geschwendt attempted to conceal his role in the killings by disposing of his clothes and the gun, when questioned he gave a complete confession which he has never repudiated.
We reiterate that the judge instructed the jury that if Geschwendt "did not possess the capacity to form this specific intent to take life, due to a mental defect or disease" but was sane and was otherwise guilty of first degree murder, it should convict him of third degree murder. We have no doubt that evidence of insanity, going to whether Geschwendt was able "to understand the nature and quality of his act or to distinguish between right or wrong with respect to that act," could have been used by the jury to conclude that Geschwendt lacked the ability to form a specific intent to take life. Therefore, it was entirely appropriate that the trial court charged the jury to consider on the diminished capacity issue the very evidence that was presented on the sanity issue. Thus, it is not surprising that neither the Commonwealth nor Geschwendt objected to the jury being charged on third degree murder, and that charge was properly given in this case.15
There is yet another factor that validates the verdict for the jury, in addition to finding Geschwendt guilty of the most severe offense available, sentenced him to die six times, thus rejecting a sentence of life imprisonment. Certainly if the jury thought that Geschwendt was insane and would have returned a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity if such a verdict had been available, but would not find him not guilty because it feared he would be released, it would have sentenced Geschwendt to imprisonment for life rather than condemn him to die. It cannot reasonably be argued that the jury would have thought that a sentence of life imprisonment could somehow be tantamount to a direction for Geschwendt's release, so that it would have been reluctant to return a verdict for that punishment. As we have already explained, the jury could not sentence Geschwendt to death unless it found an aggravating circumstance and did not find a mitigating circumstance. While it is not difficult, based on the record, to understand how the jury was able to find an aggravating circumstance, though it was not compelled to do so, it is also clear that it could easily have found a mitigating circumstance.16 Accordingly, this case is a far stronger one for a harmless error analysis than Schad because in Schad the court and not the jury fixed the death penalty. See State v. Schad, 163 Ariz. 411, 788 P.2d 1162 (1989). Thus, in contrast to the situation in Schad, the penalty imposed further validates the verdict rendered.17
3. State as Opposed to Federal Law
B. The Effectiveness of Counsel
As we measure the contours of the Constitution, federal judges are keenly aware that we do not engage in a popularity contest. We must disregard public opinion on a given issue or in a given case. As ultimate guardians of the Constitution, our role is to insure that society, when prosecuting those who breach its rules of conduct, does not breach its own rules of procedure. Our task in federal collateral review of state convictions, therefore, is not to inquire whether the habeas petitioner has violated rules of social conduct, but only whether society, in this case the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, has respected the rules it has established to guarantee fair trials. I would hold that it has not.
We have held that "[t]o deny [a defendant] the possibility of a lesser restraint of liberty because of a practice which permits arbitrary trial court activity is offensive to ... settled concepts of due process." United States ex rel. Matthews v. Johnson, 503 F.2d 339, 345 (3d Cir.1974) (in banc), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 952, 95 S.Ct. 1336, 43 L.Ed.2d 430 (1975). Involved here are those precepts of constitutional law that concern "the domain of liberty, withdrawn by the Fourteenth Amendment from encroachment by the states." Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 327, 58 S.Ct. 149, 153, 82 L.Ed. 288 (1937), overruled on other grounds by Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 (1969). Freedom from physical restraint without due process of law is among those " 'fundamental principles of liberty and justice which lie at the base of all our civil and political institutions,' " Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 67, 53 S.Ct. 55, 63, 77 L.Ed. 158 (1932) (quoting Herbert v. Louisiana, 272 U.S. 312, 316, 47 S.Ct. 103, 104, 71 L.Ed. 270 (1926)); is "basic to our system of jurisprudence," In re Oliver, 333 U.S. 257, 273, 68 S.Ct. 499, 507, 92 L.Ed. 682 (1948); and is "essential to a fair trial." Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 342-44, 83 S.Ct. 792, 795-96, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963); see Pointer v. Texas, 380 U.S. 400, 403, 85 S.Ct. 1065, 1067, 13 L.Ed.2d 923 (1965).
Geschwendt argues that the jurors may have found him insane, but because they were unwilling to release him to the streets, they returned a verdict of guilty that resulted first in a death sentence, and later in a life sentence in a penal institution. From this he argues that he was denied both a quantum and a quality of freedom, as embodied in the concept of liberty under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, because the trial court refused to instruct the jury on the third option as required under Pennsylvania law. I agree.
I would reverse the judgment of the district court and remand the cause with instructions that the court enter an order granting the petition for writ of habeas corpus and directing Geschwendt's release from custody unless the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania accords him a new trial within a reasonable period of time. Such an order should provide, of course, that even in the absence of a new trial, Geschwendt need not be released if he is civilly committed by the state within a reasonable period of time.
Byron, Don Juan, Canto I, St. 117
Stuart Taylor, Jr., Hinckley Is Cleared But Is Held Insane in Reagan Attack, N.Y. Times, June 22, 1982, at A1; see United States v. Hinckley, 525 F.Supp. 1342, 1345-49, clarified, 529 F.Supp. 520 (D.D.C.1981), affirmed, 672 F.2d 115 (D.C.Cir.1982)
Dahmer Changes Plea To Guilty But Insane, N.Y. Times, Jan. 14, 1992, at A19; Edward Walsh, Jury To Decide Dahmer's Culpability, Wash. Post, Jan. 27, 1992, at A3; Dirk Johnson, Milwaukee Jury Says Dahmer Was Sane, N.Y. Times, Feb. 16, 1992, § 1, at 24; see Wis.Stat.Ann. § 971.06(1)(d) (West 1991); State v. Shegrud, 131 Wis.2d 133, 137, 389 N.W.2d 7, 9 (1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1037, 107 S.Ct. 891, 93 L.Ed.2d 843 (1987)
On his retirement after 23 years on the Supreme Court, as quoted in the New York Herald Tribune, August 30, 1962, reprinted in Ruggero J. Aldisert, The Judicial Process 627 (1976)
Notwithstanding the assumption in a few authorities that the Act of 1860, as amended, was "repealed and replaced" by the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act of 1966, see, e.g., Commonwealth ex rel. DiEmilio v. Shovlin, 449 Pa. 177, 180, 295 A.2d 320, 322 (1972), a careful examination of legislative activity reveals that the Act of 1860 remained in effect in the form of 19 Pa.Stat.Ann. § 1351 (Purdon 1964) until its repeal in 1978 by the Act of April 28, 1978, P.L. 202, § 2(a), 42 Pa.Cons.Stat. § 20002(a) (Supp.1982). See 19 Pa.Stat.Ann. §§ 1351-1354 (Purdon Supp.1965 to 1981) (stating that "ss 1351 to 1354 [are] [r]epealed [by] 1978, April 28, P.L. 202, No. 53, § 2(a), effective June 27, 1980"); Commonwealth v. Geschwendt, 500 Pa. 120, 139 n. 3, 454 A.2d 991, 1001 n. 3 (1982) (Roberts, J., dissenting) ("The Act of 1860 was repealed by the Legislature in the Judiciary Act Repealer Act, Act of April 28, 1978, P.L. 202, § 2(a), 42 P.S. § 20002(a) (Supp.1982), and replaced by 42 Pa.C.S. § 1722(a)(1)."). That the annotators of section 4413 of the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act of 1966 included the Act of 1860, as amended, as a "cross reference" to section 4413 further suggests that the legislature intended the two statutes to co-exist. This cross reference stated: "Proceedings after acquittal on grounds of insanity, see 19 P.S. § 1351." 50 Pa.Stat.Ann. § 4413 (Purdon 1969)
Under current Pennsylvania law, a defendant asserting a defense of insanity is entitled to an instruction on "four possible verdicts": guilty, not guilty, not guilty by reason of insanity and guilty but mentally ill. Commonwealth v. Trill, 374 Pa.Super. 549, 567, 543 A.2d 1106, 1115 (1988), appeal denied, 522 Pa. 603, 562 A.2d 826 (1989). The legislature added the fourth alternative verdict in 1982, see 18 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. § 314 (Purdon 1983), to allow a jury to find an individual who was mentally ill but not insane at the time of the offense "guilty but mentally ill." This option provides for both treatment and punishment of the offender. Trill, 374 Pa.Super. at 578, 543 A.2d at 1120