Opinion ID: 1377787
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 17

Heading: The Return

Text: In the return respondent asserts that the judgment is valid, and that petitioner has not demonstrated that he was denied constitutionally adequate assistance by his trial counsel. Respondent concedes that in some respects counsel's performance fell below that expected of reasonably competent defense attorneys, but argues that counsel's omissions did not prejudice petitioner in that it is not reasonably probable that a more favorable result would have followed absent counsel's omissions. In particular respondent noted the absence of any evidence that psychiatric experts exist who would have offered testimony more favorable to petitioner on the question of his mental capacity at the time of the offense and points out that the records which petitioner claims counsel should have obtained would not have supported the theory of diminished capacity pursued at trial, or any other theory of diminished capacity that would have been consistent with the evidence presented. 3. The Traverse The traverse repeats the claims made in the petition upon which petitioner bases his assertion that he was denied effective assistance of counsel at trial, and incorporates by reference the petition and exhibits accompanying it. Additional exhibits accompany the traverse. Among the exhibits which accompany the petition for writ of habeas corpus are: a. Medical records from Clairemont Community Hospital in San Diego. Petitioner was admitted to that facility as an emergency patient on May 20, 1976. b. Medical records from the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island. Petitioner was a patient in that facility in February 1977. c. A declaration by petitioner's trial counsel in which he states: (1) He had not obtained the services of a defense investigator, law clerk, second attorney, or independent experts for petitioner's trial. He made no formal motion to obtain funds for these purposes and was unaware of section 987.9. Had he been aware of that provision he would have sought funds under it. He did make two informal inquiries prior to trial about funds for defense purposes, and discussed the availability of funds in chambers with the trial judge. He had also discussed funds with the administrator of the investigatory budget for contract attorneys. He understood from both that no funds were available. (2) The diminished capacity and insanity defenses were based primarily on petitioner's long history of alcohol and drug abuse. Counsel had been advised by petitioner's mother of his San Diego hospitalization for psychiatric reasons. Both court-appointed psychiatrists made reference to the possibility of such hospitalization, and both mentioned that records of the hospitalization might exist. Counsel had also been advised by petitioner's mother that petitioner had been seen by psychiatrists on a number of occasions while incarcerated in federal prison. Counsel did not obtain any medical or psychiatric records, although petitioner's mother stated that she would inquire about the San Diego hospitalization. Neither she nor counsel mentioned the matter again. Counsel did not discuss obtaining the records with petitioner. [31] (3) Counsel called no witnesses at the penalty trial although he had considered calling the aunt. The aunt had attended some early trial hearings, but had stopped coming to court. Counsel had been advised that the aunt was ill, and that she did not know petitioner well. Petitioner's mother had been called at the guilt phase and her testimony would have been duplicative. Neither petitioner nor his mother suggested anyone else who could testify, although counsel did inquire of them. d. A declaration and supplemental declaration of Joseph Satten, M.D., a board-certified psychiatrist who has qualified as an expert and has both examined and testified regarding the mental condition of criminal defendants on many occasions. Based on his review of the reports of the psychiatrists who examined petitioner in advance of trial, and the medical records from Clairemont Hospital and the Federal Medical Institution, and his understanding that a diminished capacity defense was presented at trial, Dr. Satten opined in his declaration that the medical records could have helped present a significantly stronger defense. The records would verify statements of petitioner that otherwise appeared to be self-serving; would lead to additional areas of inquiry; and create some sympathy for defendant because they reveal his attempt to deal constructively with the psychiatric symptoms linked to the crime. Dr. Satten, who at that time had not examined defendant, offered his analysis and conclusions regarding petitioner's mental state at the time of the offenses. His Presumptive Diagnosis was intermittent explosive disorder (DSM-III 312.32); rule out Epilepsy and Substance Abuse, alcohol and heroin (DSM-III 305.0X, 305.5X). Dr. Satten, in his accompanying discussion, states that petitioner's description of his mental state suggests a dissociative process and the possibility of an Intermittent Explosive Disorder, and that a change in an individual's state of consciousness generally manifested by some degree of amnesia usually accompanies the violent outburst. He believes that the evidence shows that petitioner's offense took place during an episode of at least partial dissociation, and that petitioner did not have the capacity to form the mental states necessary to first degree murder, that he could not form the intent to kill, or meaningfully premeditate, deliberate, or harbor malice. He also believes that it is possible that during this period petitioner met the then applicable legal test of insanity in that he could not conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. e. Also accompanying the traverse as an exhibit was a declaration of Dr. David E. Smith, who is both a physician and pharmacologist and has extensive experience in treating substance abusers and in teaching, consulting, and testifying as an expert in this field. His review of the materials led him to believe that petitioner suffered from the disease of alcoholism, and that an adequate diagnosis of petitioner's mental condition could not be made without a more complete history than that obtained for petitioner at the time of trial. Dr. Smith concludes that the examining psychiatrists were not familiar with the disease of alcoholism and had they been they would not have concluded that petitioner was able to form the intent to kill, to premeditate, harbor malice, or meaningfully and maturely reflect on the gravity of his actions. He concludes that petitioner was suffering from acute alcohol intoxication, which in an individual suffering from alcoholism often leads to gray-outs or black-outs and diminished mental capacity. Dr. Smith also asserts that the view of the examining psychiatrist that an intoxicated person could not perform complex physical tasks such as driving or running up and down stairs indicates the psychiatrist's unfamiliarity with alcoholism, and is medically incorrect. Persons with petitioner's history, he states, when intoxicated with alcohol, manifest pathological intoxication with a marked personality change and become hyperactive, aggressive and assaultive. It is also possible that these personality changes and assaultive behaviors will be accompanied by a marked memory impairment. He also explains that when a person has a grayout or blackout there is a loss of primary memory while secondary memory is retained. Petitioner described this symptom to the examining psychiatrist when he said that it was as though he were watching a movie that had lots of breaks in it, black spots. Dr. Smith declares that when a person loses primary memory but has secondary memory he is able to reconstruct events through the secondary memory and is able to piece together the events he cannot actually recall. Although Dr. Smith had not then examined defendant he believed that at the time of the offense petitioner could not harbor the specific mental states that are elements of first degree murder. Because neither expert had reviewed defendant's two confessions, and neither had examined or interviewed him prior to offering his opinion regarding defendant's mental capacity, the court granted permission to file additional declarations by Dr. Satten and Dr. Smith. In his original declaration Dr. Satten had stated that he was of the opinion that defendant's offenses occurred during an episode of at least partial dissociation, and that defendant did not have the capacity to form the mental state necessary to first degree murder, that he could not form the intent to kill, or meaningfully premeditate, deliberate, or harbor malice. He also believed that during this period defendant met the then applicable legal test of insanity in that he could not conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. After his review of defendant's confessions, and a one-and-one-half-hour interview of defendant, Dr. Satten declared that his opinion and the diagnosis which he had reached previously were unchanged, particularly ... with regard to the death of the two male victims. While there is more evidence of petitioner's ability to form the mental states necessary to constitute first degree murder with respect to the female victim it is still my opinion, after a review of all the material in this case and a personal interview with petitioner, that he could not meaningfully form the requisite mental states to constitute first degree murder because he was still significantly in a dissociative state and also under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol at the time of this killing. Dr. Satten would testify to this opinion were he called as a witness. In his postexamination declaration Dr. Smith stated that it was apparent to him during the examination of defendant that defendant was on medication and still has substantial residual neuropsychic impairment. He believes that at the time of the offenses defendant was suffering a psychotic episode, that he was chemically dependent on drugs and alcohol as a result of which his behavior was directed at the single goal of obtaining those substances, and that in his compulsive behavior defendant ingested drugs and alcohol triggering toxic psychosis. Any interruption of the goal-oriented activity would produce a rage reaction. The greater the intoxication, the greater the reaction, until a complete break with reality occurs. In his opinion defendant was in a toxic psychotic state at the time of the killings. One indication of such a psychotic episode, in the opinion of Dr. Smith, was defendant's loss of primary memory of the events, which Dr. Smith believed was evident in the trial testimony by defendant and during his examination of defendant. Dr. Smith declared that in his opinion defendant could not form the intent to kill, premeditate, deliberate, harbor malice, or meaningfully and maturely reflect on the gravity of his actions. He would testify to this effect if called as a witness. 4. Disposition A comparison of the factual allegations of the petition and traverse with those of the return satisfies us that there are no disputed factual matters requiring resolution. A reference is not necessary. ( People v. Frierson, supra, 25 Cal.3d 142, 160; In re Lawler (1979) 23 Cal.3d 190, 194 [151 Cal. Rptr. 833, 588 P.2d 1257].) Based on the exhibits and declarations summarized above, defendant contends that he has met his burden on habeas corpus of showing that counsel was on notice that a potentially meritorious defense might be available, that counsel failed to investigate that defense, and that as a result of counsel's failure he was denied that defense at trial. He argues that counsel's failure to investigate resulted in the complete withdrawal of several potentially meritorious defenses and deprived counsel of an informed basis upon which to make choices concerning the presentation of any defense at trial. In these circumstances, it is claimed, prejudice must be presumed and the judgment set aside. The alternative would be to compel the court to speculate on the effect of counsel's omissions. The rule espoused by defendant is appropriate in cases in which defense counsel wholly fails to investigate a potentially meritorious defense of which he is or should be aware, and as a result the defense is withdrawn or counsel is incapable of making an informed tactical decision with respect to whether the defense should be offered. (See People v. Shaw (1984) 35 Cal.3d 535 [198 Cal. Rptr. 788, 674 P.2d 759]; People v. Mozingo (1983) 34 Cal.3d 926 [196 Cal. Rptr. 212, 671 P.2d 363]; In re Saunders, supra, 2 Cal.3d 1033.) In People v. Frierson, supra, 25 Cal.3d 142, defendant's counsel presented what this court described as an undeveloped theory of diminished capacity, by offering evidence that on the day of a capital murder the defendant had ingested mind-altering drugs. Counsel had not consulted any experts or had the defendant examined to explore a diminished capacity defense, and offered no experts to assist the jury in understanding the potential impact of the drugs on the defendant's mental capacity. In those circumstances we concluded that it was unnecessary to consider the possible impact of counsel's omissions on the outcome of the trial. We cautioned, however, that we were not holding that counsel must seek psychiatric or expert advice in every case in which drug intoxication was a possible defense, but when it appeared to be the sole potentially meritorious defense in a capital case, and counsel elected to present it, counsel must be expected to take those reasonable measures to investigate the factual framework underlying the defense preliminary to the exercise of an informed choice among the available tactical options, if any. In the present case, we need not speculate as to the likely prejudicial effect of counsel's omissions, for counsel's failure to take reasonable investigative measures actually resulted in the presentation to the jury of an incomplete, undeveloped diminished capacity defense. (25 Cal.3d at p. 164.) This case is not Frierson, however. Here counsel concededly failed to obtain a medical record which one expert subsequently concluded reflected a prior incident of violence which could have been precipitated by the mental condition which the expert has concluded existed at the time of the offenses charged here. This is not a case in which counsel failed to investigate defendant's mental condition, however. To the contrary, although unaware of the availability of funds under section 987.9 to engage experts, counsel did have defendant enter an insanity plea, and thereby brought about the appointment of two psychiatrists who examined defendant and offered their opinions not only on his sanity at the time of the offense, but also on whether his capacity was so diminished that he was unable to or did not harbor the mental states which are elements of the charged offenses. Although defendant states that counsel did not engage independent experts, those who were appointed were neutral, court-appointed experts. In these circumstances, it cannot be said that counsel failed to investigate the diminished capacity defense which he did present. The problem is that the investigation, so far as it went, failed to produce evidence supportive of the defense. The rule of Frierson, supra, 25 Cal.3d 142, therefore, is not dispositive. (30a) Defendant proceeds on the assumption that having identified counsel's omissions he has established ineffective assistance in the preparation and presentation of his defense. Before such a conclusion may be reached here, where counsel did investigate and obtain the services of experts in evaluating defendant's mental state, we must consider: (1) whether, having the opinions of two experts that defendant was not legally insane and did not suffer from diminished capacity, counsel was under a duty to seek additional opinions; and, if so (2) whether his failure to do so prejudiced the defense. This analysis is required whether counsel's performance is to be measured under the guarantee of counsel found in article I, section 15 of the California Constitution, or under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. (31) Under the former, we stated the rule in People v. Fosselman, supra, 33 Cal.3d 572, 584: [I]n cases in which a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is based on acts or omissions not amounting to withdrawal of a defense, a defendant may prove such ineffectiveness if he establishes that his counsel failed to perform with reasonable competence and that it is reasonably probable a determination more favorable to the defendant would have resulted in the absence of counsel's failings. ( Pope, supra, 23 Cal.3d at p. 425; People v. Watson, supra, 46 Cal.2d at p. 836.) Under the Sixth Amendment standard the defendant must establish either that there was a breakdown of the adversarial process such as to warrant a presumption that the conviction is insufficiently reliable to satisfy the Constitution ( United States v. Cronic, supra, 466 U.S. 648, 662 [80 L.Ed.2d 657, 670]), or that counsel's omissions were likely to have affected the outcome of the trial. ( Strickland v. Washington, supra, 466 U.S. 668, 696 [80 L.Ed.2d 674, 699].) (30b) Addressing the first question, we conclude that counsel's failure to seek the advice of independent experts may not be characterized as constitutionally inadequate assistance. Defendant has offered declarations by attorneys engaged in the representation of criminal defendants in whose opinion defense counsel should have sought appointment of a psychiatrist to advise him prior to entry of the not guilty by reason of insanity plea on whether to enter that plea, and should have obtained the advice of a psycho-pharmacologist. They opine that failure to do so in this case was inexcusable. But defendant has not demonstrated that the experts by whom he was examined were not qualified or that counsel had reason to believe they were not qualified to determine whether defendant's mental capacity was diminished at the time of the offenses. His present experts have concluded that, because the appointed psychiatric experts did not arrive at the same diagnosis as they did, the appointed experts are unfamiliar with alcoholism and drug dependence. We cannot accept the opinion of one expert that because another has reached a contrary conclusion with respect to a diagnosis the other is unqualified. Defendant himself does not so argue. [32] Defendant's attorney did that which we held in Frierson, supra, 25 Cal.3d 142, was required. He made reasonable efforts to investigate the factual framework underlying the defense of diminished capacity in an attempt to obtain additional evidence in the form of expert opinion to bolster the defense. Competent representation does not demand that counsel seek repetitive examinations of the defendant until an expert is found who will offer a supportive opinion. Defendant's claim here is not unlike that made in In re Grissom (1978) 85 Cal. App.3d 840 [150 Cal. Rptr. 96], where the court admonished that defense lawyers are not expected to practice the legal equivalent of defensive medicine by ordering multiple tests in the hope that one will produce useful information, tests they forego at peril of being branded incompetent. ( Id., at p. 849.) As we observed in People v. Stanworth (1974) 11 Cal.3d 588, 613 [114 Cal. Rptr. 250, 522 P.2d 1058]: [c]ounsel did undertake an inquiry to determine the mental capacity of defendant and ... found no evidence of diminished capacity. Defendant's ability to produce conflicting evidence four years later does not in itself establish that the factual inquiry was inadequate. The proper test is whether the original inquiry by counsel was adequate in the light of facts he knew or should have known at the time the inquiry was undertaken. Even were we to conclude that counsel should have sought another opinion or opinions, it does not appear reasonably probable that a more favorable determination would have been reached but for counsel's failure to locate the two experts who now state that they believe defendant was unable to form the intent to kill, or to deliberate, premeditate, or harbor malice, and was in a dissociative state at the time of the offenses. None of these mental states was a necessary element at the guilt phase where it seems clear that the verdicts of first degree murder were based on a felony-murder theory. Defendant's own testimony established both that he intended to steal, and that the killings took place in the perpetration of robbery. Neither the declaration of Dr. Satten nor that of Dr. Smith suggests that defendant was incapable of having or did not have the intent to steal when he went to the home of Miguel, Salvador, and Lourdes or that this intent did not exist at the time he robbed and killed them. The questions to be addressed in applying this standard of prejudice are: does this record now demonstrate that if counsel had obtained the records from Clairemont Hospital and the Federal Correctional Institution and made them available to the experts who examined petitioner, or had he obtained the services of independent or more knowledgeable experts, the diminished capacity defense would have been significantly stronger? Might the medical records have affected the jury's determination of whether petitioner lacked the mental states which are elements of first degree murder at the time of the homicides? Might the records have convinced an expert that he lacked these mental states and thus enabled counsel to offer evidence on the question in the form of expert opinion? In the opinion of Dr. Satten the records which trial counsel did not obtain, and which the examining experts therefore did not consider, would have supported a conclusion that petitioner suffered from grayouts or blackouts at the time of the offenses. In the opinion of Dr. Smith the examining experts should have recognized that petitioner suffered from alcoholism which brought about these conditions, and could not harbor the requisite mental states. Thus each declarant believed that the additional evidence might have persuaded the jury that petitioner did not intend to kill the victims, had not premeditated or deliberated the killings, and did not harbor malice when he shot the victims. Considered in light of the entire record it does not appear reasonably probable that these opinions or the records of defendant's earlier hospitalization would have affected the verdicts at the guilt and sanity phases of the trial. Defendant's statement to California officers, and his trial testimony demonstrated his recall of many details of the events leading to the murders of at least two of the victims. He admitted preplanning most of those events. The jury heard one of these confessions, as well as the testimony of petitioner and that of Tyson and Karen. The jury therefore heard direct evidence of preplanning activity by petitioner, and of his detailed recall of the events. The opinions of the declarants offer only circumstantial evidence of inability to harbor the requisite mental states. The declaration of Dr. Satten does not relate the diagnosis of explosive disorder and its accompanying partial dissociation to the evidence that petitioner had good recall of the events and had preplanned them. [33] It is also noteworthy that both experts considered only defendant's mental state at the time of the offenses, notwithstanding the substantial evidence that the crimes were preplanned. (32) It is well established that where such intent has been formed and continues to control a defendant's actions in committing an offense, his intoxication while committing the crime does not negate the intent element of the offense. (See People v. Hough (1944) 24 Cal.2d 535, 542 [150 P.2d 444]; People v. Coleman (1942) 20 Cal.2d 399, 410 [126 P.2d 349].) (30c) Finally, the medical records themselves do not support the defense of diminished capacity that was presented on the basis of defendant's past drug and/or alcohol intoxication. They do not confirm the belief of petitioner's mother that petitioner suffered from epilepsy, or mental defect as the result of a head injury except to the extent that they incorporate petitioner's statement of that history and indicate that while in the Federal Correctional Institution petitioner had taken Dilantin. No diagnosis of epilepsy or brain damage was made, and the Clairemont report found that petitioner's psychiatric problems were inconsistent with a seizure disorder, noting that his violent episodes were precipitated by anger and were directed in character rather than being the product of disordered cerebral electric activity. [34] In the light of these shortcomings we cannot say that had any or all of this evidence been presented it might have affected the verdicts. The petition therefore must be denied insofar as it seeks to invalidate the convictions and the findings on sanity. We consider below the relevance of the additional evidence to the penalty decision and whether counsel's failure to obtain and present it may have affected that decision.