Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/94/57/602374/
Timestamp: 2019-08-19 16:11:05
Document Index: 782463276

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 922', '§ 922', '§ 922', '§ 924', '§ 17', '§ 921', '§ 922', '§ 922', '§ 922', '§ 922', '§ 922', '§ 4']

United States of America, Appellee, v. Felix Garcia, Defendant-appellant, 94 F.3d 57 (2d Cir. 1996) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Second Circuit › 1996 › United States of America, Appellee, v. Felix Garcia, Defendant-appellant
United States of America, Appellee, v. Felix Garcia, Defendant-appellant, 94 F.3d 57 (2d Cir. 1996)
US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit - 94 F.3d 57 (2d Cir. 1996)
Argued June 12, 1996. Decided Aug. 26, 1996
Defendant Felix Garcia appeals from his conviction before the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (T.F. Gilroy Daly, District Judge) . On appeal, Garcia claims that: (1) the district court erred in instructing the jury that in order to find that Garcia satisfied his burden of proving insanity, his severe mental disease, rather than his alcohol and drug use at the time of the commission of the crime, must have been the cause of his inability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions; (2) he was deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial because the district court refused to allow his attorney to deliver a rebuttal closing argument; (3) the government impermissibly amended the indictment charging him with being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) by relying at trial on proof of the firearm's connection to foreign commerce when the indictment referred only to interstate commerce; and (4) the Supreme Court's recent decision in United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S. Ct. 1624, 131 L. Ed. 2d 626 (1995), renders 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) unconstitutional on its face or as applied to Garcia.
On October 20, 1994, a grand jury indicted Garcia for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) (1). After entering a plea of not guilty, Garcia moved for a competency evaluation. Judge Daly granted the motion on December 8, 1994 and, following the evaluation, Garcia was found competent to stand trial. On January 13, 1995, Garcia filed a notice of intent to rely on an insanity defense, pursuant to Rule 12.2 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Trial commenced on May 3, 1995. Garcia presented his insanity defense, but on May 4, 1995, the jury rejected it and rendered a guilty verdict. On September 29, 1995, the district court sentenced Garcia under the armed career criminal provision of 18 U.S.C. § 924(e) (1) to a term of imprisonment of 192 months, to run concurrently with any sentence to be imposed by the State of Connecticut, to be followed by a five year term of supervised release. Judgment was entered on October 2, 1995. Garcia subsequently pled guilty in state court to attempted assault on a police officer and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of ten years, to run concurrently with his federal sentence. On appeal, Garcia raises no objection to his sentence; his challenge is solely to his district court conviction.
Not surprisingly, the views of the psychiatrists differed as to the nature of Garcia's mental state at the time of the incident. Dr. Gottlieb testified for the government that Garcia's primary diagnosis was substance dependence--primarily on cocaine and alcohol--coupled with antisocial personality disorder. Dr. Gottlieb stated that Garcia's "behavior [was] entire [l]y consistent with someone who was, in common parlance, ... really high and probably drunk too." In contrast, Dr. Amble testified for the defense that Garcia suffered, and had long been suffering, from the severe mental disease of bipolar disorder, and that he was in a manic phase and suffered from delusional thinking on March 28, 1994. Dr. Amble also testified, however, that he could not "rule ... out completely" the possibility that Garcia's behavior was "simply the product of substance abuse."
As we previously have stated, " [a]lthough a defendant is entitled to a jury charge reflecting his theory of defense, that theory must have a valid basis in law and fact." United States v. Ruggiero, 934 F.2d 440, 450 (2d Cir. 1991). We believe that the district court correctly rejected Garcia's proposed charge because Garcia's theory had no basis in fact. Although the jury was apprised of Garcia's long history of substance abuse, it heard no evidence that Garcia's substance abuse either caused or was caused by his bipolar disorder.1
The district court told the jury, in effect, that voluntary substance abuse must not be taken into account in determining whether a severe mental disease or defect exists in the first instance, but where such a disease or defect is found to exist, voluntary substance abuse will not defeat an insanity defense. Our review of the charge is de novo. See United States v. Kwong, 69 F.3d 663, 667 (2d Cir. 1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S. Ct. 1343, 134 L. Ed. 2d 491 (1996). Because the charge is not covered expressly by the text of the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 ("IDRA"), 18 U.S.C. § 17,2 in examining the charge for error, we are required to look to the congressional intent behind the IDRA and to existing caselaw.
Garcia claims, however, that the statement by the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding voluntary intoxication means only that "a drug addict or alcoholic cannot assert an insanity defense based solely upon [his] addicted status." He suggests that Congress did not mean to imply that where one suffers from a mental disease or defect as well as voluntary alcoholism or substance abuse, each of which alone is insufficient to satisfy the IDRA's requirement of a "severe mental disease or defect [rendering one] unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts," he may not prove that together the conditions satisfy the statute's requirement. The government responds that " [c]ombining a mental disease or defect that is itself insufficient under the IDRA, with the impermissible consideration of voluntary substance abuse, to result in a valid defense of insanity under the IDRA, is wholly illogical. This would constitute nothing short of rewarding the voluntary abuse of drugs and alcohol in direct contradiction of the intent of Congress in passing the IDRA." The caselaw on this issue, although limited, recognizes as much, and we agree.
To date, only the Ninth Circuit has considered this issue. United States v. Knott, 894 F.2d 1119 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 873, 111 S. Ct. 197, 112 L. Ed. 2d 158 (1990). On facts similar to this case, the Knott Court held that the jury could not consider a defendant's voluntary drug use or intoxication at the time of his crime in combination with his schizophrenia in determining whether the defendant was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or wrongfulness of his acts. Rather, in order to satisfy the requirements of the IDRA with respect to proving insanity, the defendant would have had to demonstrate that his schizophrenia alone prevented him from appreciating the nature and quality of his acts. Id. at 1121.
Garcia argues against our adopting the view set forth in Knott. Instead, relying on our decision in United States v. Torniero, 735 F.2d 725 (2d Cir. 1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1110, 105 S. Ct. 788, 83 L. Ed. 2d 782 (1985), he urges us to find error in the district court's charge. Garcia's reliance on Torniero, however, is misplaced. In Torniero, we stated that " [s]ubstance abuse may only be used as the basis of an insanity defense if the affliction brings about actual insanity." Id. at 733. The Torniero case, however, involved involuntary intoxication and the above-quoted statement is thus dicta. Furthermore, there was no evidence presented that Garcia's bipolar disorder, the mental disease or defect at issue, was caused by his substance abuse. In addition, our decision in Torniero preceded passage of the IDRA, which, as we have already noted, significantly changed federal insanity defense law.
As is evident from their language, Rule 29.1 and the accompanying advisory committee notes argue strongly against the position Garcia urges us to adopt. Indeed, at least one of our sister circuits has rejected the argument that a criminal defendant raising insanity as a defense is entitled to rebuttal closing argument. In United States v. Byrd, 834 F.2d 145, 147 (8th Cir. 1987), the Eighth Circuit stated:
By the foregoing, we do not mean to convey to the district courts of this circuit that defense rebuttal is in every instance impermissible. Rather, the issue properly is left to the sound discretion of the district court to be determined on a case-by-case basis. Cf. United States v. Cardascia, 951 F.2d 474, 485 (2d Cir. 1991) (upholding trial judge's grant of defense rebuttal on the ground that the trial judge has discretion over this issue as part of his "obligation ... to ensure a fair and orderly procedure in the closing arguments to the jury").
18 U.S.C. § 921(a) (2). It is plain that the statute itself refers to "interstate or foreign commerce" as one concept. In addition, several of our sister circuits have found expressly that the term "interstate or foreign commerce" is a single unitary concept rather than two separate bases for jurisdiction. See United States v. Alvarez, 972 F.2d 1000, 1003-04 (9th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 977, 113 S. Ct. 1427, 122 L. Ed. 2d 795 (1993); United States v. Young, 730 F.2d 221, 224 (5th Cir. 1984); United States v. McRary, 665 F.2d 674, 678 (5th Cir. Unit B) ("The word 'commerce' is consistently preceded in the statute by 'interstate or foreign' without any hint that 'commerce' should have separate meanings for each.") (footnote omitted), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 1011, 102 S. Ct. 2306, 73 L. Ed. 2d 1307 (1982); cf. United States v. Carter, 981 F.2d 645, 648 (2d Cir. 1992) (defendant was on notice that the pistol he possessed had travelled to Vermont via interstate commerce because the pistol was imprinted with the words "Made in West Germany"), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 1023, 113 S. Ct. 1827, 123 L. Ed. 2d 456 (1993). We agree and hold that by referencing interstate commerce in the indictment, the concept of foreign commerce was included as well. Therefore, there was no impermissible constructive amendment of the indictment by the district court.
Garcia claims that the Supreme Court's recent decision in United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S. Ct. 1624, 131 L. Ed. 2d 626 (1995), finding unconstitutional the Gun-Free Zone Act, 18 U.S.C. § 922(q), which prohibits possession of a firearm in a school zone, renders 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) unconstitutional on its face or as applied to Garcia.
We reject Garcia's Lopez claim. As we recently noted in United States v. Sorrentino, 72 F.3d 294, 296 (2d Cir. 1995), Lopez does not render 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) unconstitutional on its face. See also United States v. Rawls, 85 F.3d 240, 242 (5th Cir. 1996) (per curiam); United States v. Gateward, 84 F.3d 670, 671-72 (3d Cir. 1996); United States v. Bates, 77 F.3d 1101, 1104 (8th Cir. 1996); United States v. Bradford, 78 F.3d 1216, 1223 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S. Ct. 1581, 134 L. Ed. 2d 678 (1996); United States v. Bell, 70 F.3d 495, 497-98 (7th Cir. 1995); United States v. Bolton, 68 F.3d 396, 400 (10th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S. Ct. 966, 133 L. Ed. 2d 887 (1996); United States v. Shelton, 66 F.3d 991, 992 (8th Cir. 1995) (per curiam), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S. Ct. 1364, 134 L. Ed. 2d 530 (1996); United States v. Mosby, 60 F.3d 454, 456 (8th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S. Ct. 938, 133 L. Ed. 2d 864 (1996); United States v. Hanna, 55 F.3d 1456, 1462 n. 2 (9th Cir. 1995). Furthermore, as we noted in Sorrentino, it is sufficient to sustain a conviction under § 922(g) that the government prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the firearm previously had traveled in interstate commerce. Sorrentino, 72 F.3d at 296. That requirement was satisfied in this case. Garcia seems to acknowledge the weakness of his challenge before us to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) by conceding that he is bringing the challenge only "to preserve [it] for further appellate review, should that become necessary."
The M'Naghten rule, or so-called "right-wrong" test, was the prevailing rule for more than a century, during which time it was supplemented in several jurisdictions by a test that permitted acquittal when a defendant was driven by an "irresistible impulse" to commit an offense. United States v. Torniero, 735 F.2d 725, 729 (2d Cir. 1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1110, 105 S. Ct. 788, 83 L. Ed. 2d 782 (1985). In 1954, the District of Columbia Circuit attempted to modernize the insanity defense rules by holding that "an accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act was the product of mental disease or mental defect." Durham v. United States, 214 F.2d 862, 874-75 (D.C. Cir. 1954) (footnote omitted). That rule, however, was subsequently overruled, United States v. Brawner, 471 F.2d 969 (D.C. Cir. 1972) (en banc), in favor of the rule espoused by the American Law Institute that a "person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law." Model Penal Code § 4.01(1) (Final Draft 1962) (quoted in United States v. Hansen, 701 F.2d 1078, 1080 n. 3 (2d Cir. 1983)). Under all of the pre-IDRA standards, once a defendant raised the issue of insanity, the government had the burden of disproving the defense beyond a reasonable doubt. S.Rep. No. 225, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. 222, 224 (1983), reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3182, 3407.