Opinion ID: 1723757
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: trial counsel was ineffective for failing to introduce evidence of retardation at the suppression hearing or at trial to explain chase's particular vulnerability to police coercion.

Text: ¶ 13. On direct appeal, Ricky Chase raised the following issue: The trial court erred in allowing the statement of the defendant to be admitted into evidence in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States as well as Article Three, Sections 14 and 26 of the Mississippi Constitution. This Court held: that from a totality of all the circumstances the lower court was well within the realm of substantial evidence in finding that Chase's statement was admissible and not the product of improper inducement. Chase made an intelligent and knowing waiver of his rights. All law enforcement officers' testimony, as well as Ricky Chase's own testimony, constitutes proof that Chase was advised of his constitutional rights, that he understood those rights, and that regardless of Clower's statement to him, Chase voluntarily and without inducement, gave several statements or admissions to law enforcement officers. More importantly, as Chase put it, I would have told the truth anyway. Chase, 645 So.2d at 841-42. ¶ 14. Chase now argues that his counsel was ineffective for failure to introduce evidence of Chase's retardation, apparently those few lines from Dr. Perry's report, at the suppression hearing or at trial. Chase argues that this evidence would have changed the circuit court's decision on the admission of his statement. Chase cites numerous cases from this and other jurisdictions which deal with confessions in the context of a defendant who may be mentally deficient. The circuit court found that Chase appeared to be of average intelligence and had no trouble reading the rights forms in question. The court also noted that Chase had refused to allow the police to search the car he was driving at the time he was arrested because it didn't belong to him. The circuit court, however, was unaware of the findings of Dr. Perry, at least at the suppression hearing held on November 20, 1989. The circuit court's order which directed the examination of Chase by Dr. Perry was dated and filed December 8, 1989. Dr. Perry's report was dated December 11, 1989. Trial counsel could not have presented this evidence to the circuit court during the suppression hearing because it did not yet exist. Whether counsel could be ineffective for failure to have Chase psychologically evaluated before the suppression hearing was not raised and we do not address it here. ¶ 15. As for failure to introduce such evidence during trial, because Chase did not raise a plea of insanity, the most logical time for such introduction would have been when the statements in question were introduced. It appears from a review of the record that the two statements in question, S-31 and S-32, were never introduced into evidence at trial, but only for identification. S-31 and S-32 are actually the same statement, with some minor editing done to S-32. This did not prevent the statement from being referred to on several occasions by the witnesses for the State. In his statement, Chase indicates that when he entered the Hart home Mrs. Hart was already tied up and that he participated in none of the ransacking of the house or the killing of Mr. Hart. This differed somewhat from his trial testimony, where he admitted that he had helped Robert Washington tie up Mrs. Hart, that he helped ransack the house, and that he helped carry the guns and money off after the killing. The statement is similar to Chase's trial testimony in that he denied being the person who shot Elmer Hart. Since the statement is not a confession, its value was primarily to impeach Chase. The circuit court was privy to Dr. Perry's report at the time of the trial. We find that counsel was not ineffective for failure to differently use Dr. Perry's report during trial.