Case Name: William R. McCall v. State of Indiana
Court: Supreme Court of Indiana
Jurisdiction: Indiana
Decision Date: 1980-08-21
Citations: 273 Ind. 682
Docket Number: No. 977S718
Parties: William R. McCall v. State of Indiana.
Judges: DeBruler and Hunter, JJ., concur; Pivarnik, J., dissents with opinion in which Givan, C.J., concurs.
Reporter: Indiana Reports
Volume: 273
Pages: 682–694

Head Matter:
William R. McCall v. State of Indiana.
[No. 977S718.
Filed August 21, 1980.]
James T. Walker, of Merrillville, for appellant.
Theodore L. Sendak, Attorney General, RollinE. Thompson, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Opinion:
Prentice, J.
Defendant (Appellant), together with others, was found guilty of felony murder and premeditated murder, in connection with the murder of Richard Wozniak. He was sentenced to life imprisonment upon the felony murder verdict, while sentencing was withheld upon the premeditated murder verdict. This direct appeal presents the single issue of whether or not the court erred in refusing to permit one of Defendant's witnesses to testify.
In advance of trial, Defendant gave notice of his intent to present an insanity defense; and pursuant to Ind. Code § 35-5-2-2 (Burns 1975), the trial court appointed two psychiatrists to examine him. These psychiatrists were called to testify out of the order provided by the statute, but without objection of the defendant. Both testifed that when they attempted to interview the defendant, he announced that he had nothing to say to them and refused to answer their questions. Both, however, had examined the defendant previously, and both testified that from such prior examinations and from hospital records, they had opinions as to Defendant's sanity at the time of the crime and that in their opinions, he was then sane.
The first witness called by the defense was Arthur A. Ludwig, who was called to give testimony relating to Defendant's sanity. The State objected to Ludwig's being permitted to testify, citing Defendant's refusal to cooperate with the court-appointed psychiatrists and the case of Lee v. County Court of Erie County, (1971) 27 N.Y. 2d 432, 318 N.Y.S. 2d 705, 267 N.E.2d 452, cert. den., 404 U.S. 823, 92 S.Ct. 46, 30 L. Ed.2d 50.
The controversy as to whether or not the witness could testify centered upon whether Ludwig would be testifying as a lay witness or as an expert, because the holding in Lee v. County Court of Erie County, supra, was that where the defendant had refused to submit to a court ordered psychiatric examination, his offer of pyschiatric testimony was properly rejected.
Voir dire examination was had and revealed that Ludwig was a professional family counselor employed by a community service organization, held numerous academic degrees and had had extensive schooling in law, sociology, psychology and psychiatry. It was further disclosed that Ludwig's contacts with the defendant and his family, which had spanned a period of approximately thirteen years, had not been a business or social relationship but had been in his professional capacity as a family counselor provided by a community service organization.
The trial court, upon the foregoing testimony, concluded that Ludwig would be testifying as an expert witness and, upon that basis, he was not permitted to testify. We do not approve of the holding in the Lee case, but even if this were not so, we find it so distinguishable from the case before us as to be an unsatisfactory basis for the trial court's ruling.
In the New York case, Lee pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to two charges of murder. Conflicting psychiatric opinions were in evidence at this trial, and he was found guilty. On appeal, the convictions were set aside and a new trial ordered upon the grounds that the state had not proven sanity beyond a reasonable doubt and that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence.
On re-trial, Lee again pleaded insanity. The court sustained a state's motion for a mental examination, but Lee, asserting his prerogative not to incriminate himself, refused to submit to such examination. He was found to be in contempt of court, but the contempt order was reversed.
The trial court again ordered that Lee be examined and further ordered that in the event he did not cooperate, his insanity plea would be stricken and he would be denied the right to call psychiatric witnesses. Lee did refuse to answer the psychiatrists' questions, and the sanctions mentioned were imposed.
Other questions were presented in the review of the sanctions order upon a petition for a writ of prohibition. Our interest in the case, however, is that the Court of Appeals held: (1) The privilege against self-incrimination does not obtain to preclude a mental examination, where an insanity plea has been interposed. (2) Striking the defendant's plea was not a proper sanction, since the defendant's capacity to commit the crime was put in issue by his plea, not by his availability for examination. (3) Since such examinations are the most effective aid to a determination of the merits of the defense, a defendant who chooses to deprive the trier of fact of such an essential source of evidence should not be permitted to offer psychiatric evidence (evidence of the same character as that thwarted) at trial. (4) Other relevant evidence upon the issues should be admitted. (5) If other evidence of insanity is presented, the trial court should apprise the jury of Lee's failure to cooperate and instruct that such failure should be considered by them in determining the merits of the defense.
Our dissatisfaction with the Lee determination is that if a defendant is, in fact, insane or incompetent to stand trial, such an infirmity may just as likely extend to his seemingly irrational refusal to cooperate as to the anti-social conduct that prompted the criminal charges. The problem obviously has no perfect solution, but since the issue of insanity becomes the most vital issue, if not the only one, in such a case and must ultimately be determined by the jury, it seems that the relevant competent evidence should not be precluded, for whatever reason.
The right of the trial court to impose sanctions to enforce compliance with orderly procedures is not questioned. But, due process of law simply cannot tolerate a procedure that imposes sanctions that cut out the very heart of a legally acceptable defense, for conduct, the accountability for which is closely aligned with the central issue at trial.
It has been suggested that the trial court's action was consistent with our holding in State ex rel. Kiritsis v. Marion Probate Court, (1978) 269 Ind. 550, 381 N.E. 2d 1245. In Kiritsis, however, there are marked differences. Kiritsis was a contempt of court matter following a hearing. Further, it stemmed from a civil commitment proceeding arising from a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. Neither criminal nor quasi-criminal sanctions were at stake. The case before us is more akin to Haskett v. State, (1970) 255 Ind. 206, 263 N.E. 2d 529, which was distinguished in the majority opinion in State ex rel. Kiritsis, supra.
The recognition of insanity as a defense to criminal charges was recognized at common law simply because one who suffers from insanity cannot, in a legal sense, entertain a criminal intent. A statute providing that insanity would be no defense would be invalid. Ingles v. People, (1933) 92 Colo. 518, 22 P. 2d 1109. Because the defense is uniquely subject to being feigned, various statutory schemes have been adopted to curb such abuses and to aid in the detection of bogus claims. The first statute enacted in this state was Acts 1913, Ch. 298, § 2, p. 774, which, for the first time, required a defendant desiring to claim insanity to give advance notice to the state by filing of a special plea. This statute also authorized the presentment, at the trial, of evidence of the defendant's present insanity — obviously to compensate for the difficulty in producing evidence of insanity existing at the time of the criminal act. By Acts 1927, Ch. 102, § 1, p. 268, the Legislature went further and required one defending upon the basis of claimed insanity to submit to psychiatric examination by disinterested court appointed experts who will testify at the trial. It has been urged that this procedure is for the benefit of those claiming that their criminal conduct was prompted by insanity. Such a claim obviously presupposes that the right to a defense of insanity exists by judicial grace, which is not the case. Notwithstanding that such statutes are something of a legislative incursion against the previously unfettered right to require the state to prove sanity, they have, nevertheless, generally been upheld against claims of compulsory self-incrimination. 51 Georgetown Law Journal 143; Lee v. County Court of Erie County, supra. Hence, it does not appear that the submission of evidence of the defendant's refusal to submit, when properly directed, or his refusal to cooperate with the examiners, would be violative of his rights. It, therefore appears that under such circumstances, the state would have the right to offer evidence of the defendant's uncooperative conduct, as an impeachment of his defense. A proper instruction that such evidence "could be considered upon the issue of the defendant's sanity or insanity" might also be helpful.
Apparently there was no hearing or any opportunity for the defendant to explain, if he could, his seemingly unwarranted conduct, let alone an opportunity given Defendant, in advance of the consequences, to reassess the propriety and wisdom of his conduct. Such conduct may indicate sanity or it may indicate insanity, and the jury, as the trier of the facts, should make the critical decision. Absent other substantial evidence of insanity, it appears that evidence of such a refusal could only give rise to a serious question as to the bona fides of the defense. The question, nevertheless, is one for the jury.
Assuming, arguendo, that the sanctions imposed by the Lee court were appropriate, there are several distinctions between that case and the one before us. In Lee, the trial court issued an order to him to cooperate and put him on direct notice that his failure to cooperate would result in the striking of his insanity defense and a denial of his right to call expert witnesses in his defense. In the case before us, there was no such notice. The trial court simply, upon the State's motion, refused to permit the defendant's witnesses to testify, because the defendant had been uncooperative with the court appointed psychiatrists.
It is also noteworthy that the defendant's conduct, or misconduct, apparently did not interfere with the witnesses' performance of their task and most certainly did not benefit the defendant. Both psychiatrists testified that, notwithstanding the defendant's refusal to cooperate, they were able to form opinions as to his sanity from prior examinations and hospital records and that it was their opinion that he was sane. In view of this, we have difficulty in understanding why in this case, the trial judge felt compelled to impose the drastic sanction.
A further distinction is that the evidence authorized to be excluded in the Lee case was of the same character or category as that which, but for his refusal to comply with the court's order, might have been produced by the State. Although the trial judge, in excluding the evidence in the case before us, apparently believed himself to be excluding evidence of the same character as that thwarted by the defendant, it was in fact, of a different category. The witnesses with whom the defendant had been uncooperative were expert witnesses. Expert witnesses are witnesses injected into a case, because of their expertise in a given field, either to assist the jury in understanding some technical subject not ordinarily within the ken of a lay person or to express an opinion, often hypothetically, upon a disputed issue, following a proper foundation, both as to his knowledge of the subject involved and the specifics of the particular case. Expert opinions are manufactured expressly for the trial.
Opinion testimony, is not the exclusive domain of experts. Lay witnesses, in many instances, may also express opinions. The admission of such evidence has generally been limited to those situations where the facts from which the witness received an impression are too evanescent in nature to be recollected or too complicated to be separated and distinctly narrated. Under such circumstances the witnesses' impressions from such facts are admissible. Wigmore on Evidence, Third Edition, Section 1924. The admissibility of lay testimony on issues of sanity appears to have been but rarely questioned. It has been variously stated, but with uniform agreement by text and encyclopedia writers:
"In criminal prosecutions as well as in civil cases, non-expert witnesses are not permitted to express general opinions as to sanity or to give opinions independent of facts and circumstances within their own knowledge, but, as a general rule, those who are acquainted with the accused, or who have had sufficient opportunity to observe his conduct, may narrate the relevant facts known to them and thereupon express an opinion as to his sanity." 31 Am. Jur. 2d Expert and Opinion Evidence § 88. (Emphasis added.) Citations omitted.
"To warrant the receipt of an opinion of a non-expert witness as to a person's sanity or soundness of mind it must satisfactorily appear that the opinion is based on the witness' own knowledge or observation and that he had sufficient opportunity to observe the person and to form an accurate opinion." 32 C.J.S. Evidence, § 546 (33) (b).
"Of the state of law in the various jurisdictions, it is enough to note in general that laymen's opinions are today everywhere con ceded to be admissible, subject to local qualifications and quibbles." Wigmore on Evidence, Third Edition, § 1938. Citations given, including Doe v. Reagan, et al, (1839) 5 Blackford 217 and Adams v. State, (1971) 259 Ind. 64, 271 N.E. 2d 425.
The rule in Indiana does not appear to have changed since it was expressed in Doe v. Reagan, et al, supra, as follows:
"The opinions of witnesses may be taken as to the sanity of a grantor, but the facts upon which the opinions are founded must also be stated. Men of medical skills, who have no personal knowledge of the facts, may be asked their opinions whether certain appearances, detailed by other witnesses, are symptoms of insanity. Rex v. Wright, Russ & Ryan's Crown Cases, 456. But the opinion of a person not of the medical profession is not evidence, unless the facts upon which it is based, have come under his own observation, and unless also he state those facts to the jury." 5 Blackford at 218.
It thus appears that the distinction between expert and lay witnesses, at least upon an issue of sanity, is not whether or not they may express opinions, as inferences logically to be drawn from narrated facts and experiences, which either may do. Rather, it appears that the difference lies in the foundation required to render the opinion admissible. The lay witness' opinion is admitted not because of specialized knowledge of the general subject of insanity but because of his particular experience with the person. The expert, on the other hand, qualifies because of his specialized knowledge of the subject matter. His opinions are entitled to a certain credence, although his observations of, or experiences with, the subject may have been quite limited or even non-existent. Often, he premises his opinions upon hypotheticals. His opinions, in either event, are created expressly for the purpose of becoming evidence. Whereas, the layman's opinions are by-products or "fall-out" from observations or experiences having coincidental value as evidence.
Obviously Ludwig was eminently qualified to serve as an expert in several areas, but he did not function or appear at trial in that capacity. The evidence offered through him was of a different character, although admittedly closely resembling it, than the supposed evidence that the defendant was charged with obstructing. He had had extensive contact and experience with the defendant for a long period of time prior to the commission of the crime. It is true that his experience with the defendant was in his professional capacity, but its purpose was not to qualify him as a witness. Although Ludwig's professional qualifications undoubtedly would have affected the weight accorded to his testimony, and the jury may well have regarded him as an expert, his expertise was not the basis for determining his competence to testify.
For error in excluding the defendant's offer of evidence of his insanity for the consideration of the jury, the judgment of the trial court is reversed and the cause remanded to the trial court for a new trial.
DeBruler and Hunter, JJ., concur; Pivarnik, J., dissents with opinion in which Givan, C.J., concurs.