Opinion ID: 2022261
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: A Claimed Violation of Doyle

Text: The essence of the Supreme Court's holding in Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 96 S.Ct. 2240, 49 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976), is that a defendant's silence after he has been advised of his rights cannot be used to obtain a conviction by implying that the silence is rooted in guilty knowledge. Allen talked for nearly six hours, including four after his second warning. The police asked him to give a written statement, but he declined. His rights were respected, and no misuse was made of this fact. The next afternoon he was advised of his rights again and gave a voluntary statement. He simply was not silent. Without the defendant's silence being used to suggest that he silently confessed, there is no Doyle violation.
Allen asserts the prosecutor used perjured testimony of police witnesses and relied on that testimony in closing argument. The alleged perjury occurred when officers testified they had not told Allen specific facts regarding the crimes against Griffin. Allen says they had given him some specific facts. Thus, when the prosecutor in closing argument asserted that the only way Allen knew about the murder was that he was the perpetrator, the allegedly false police testimony may have improperly bolstered the weight of Allen's incriminating statements and thus had an effect on the outcome of the trial. Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264, 272, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 1179, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217 (1959). Allen provides no evidence showing the particular testimony he challenges is false. Absent such a showing, this claim lacks substance. The challenged portion of the prosecutor's summation refers to conversations police officers had with Allen before his interrogation by Logsdon. Accordingly, the prosecutor's closing argument was based on legitimate evidence.
Allen contends the victim's statements to Dr. Seaman were hearsay and should have been excluded from evidence. Allen's trial counsel, however, did not object when Dr. Seaman testified. Failure to object at trial waives any claim of error and allows otherwise inadmissible hearsay evidence to be considered for substantive purposes and to establish a material fact at issue. Banks v. State, 567 N.E.2d 1126 (Ind.1991). Nevertheless, we address Allen's claim on the merits because the decision not to object impacts his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered at trial to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Blue v. Brooks, 261 Ind. 338, 303 N.E.2d 269 (1973). Hearsay may not be admitted as substantive evidence unless it comes within one of the recognized exceptions to the hearsay rule. The substance of Griffin's remarks to Dr. Seaman was that the man who shopped for his car on July 13 wrote his name and telephone number on a piece of paper that he left with her. Allen contends this permits the trier of fact to infer that Allen was present and wrote the note found in Griffin's home. The State responds that the remarks were not hearsay because they were not offered for the purpose of proving that Allen wrote the note or that Allen was present, but for the purpose of explaining the course of Dr. Seaman's conduct. This conduct included writing Allen's telephone number on his own note, calling Allen's residence that evening, and, ultimately, directing the police to Allen's place of employment. Allen's claim is plausible but unconvincing. We conclude that Griffin's statements were not hearsay and would properly be admitted to show their effect on Dr. Seaman and to explain his conduct. Griffin's comment that a black man wrote the note simply does not prove that Allen was the writer. In contrast, the prosecutor followed Dr. Seaman's testimony with a line of questions that laid an evidentiary foundation for the admission of Dr. Seaman's handwritten note containing Allen's name and home telephone number and his testimony that he called that number. This line of questioning demonstrates that Griffin's statement was used for the purpose stated and thus was not hearsay. We cannot say that, had an objection been lodged and overruled, the ruling would have been an abuse of discretion. See Boyd v. State, 494 N.E.2d 284 (Ind.1986), cert. denied 479 U.S. 1046, 107 S.Ct. 910, 93 L.Ed.2d 860 (1987). [12]
Allen claims that the admission into evidence, without objection, of several slides of Griffin's autopsy was cumulative and gruesome, and amounted to fundamental error. [13] Allen particularly objected to a slide that displayed a contusion to Griffin's skull by way of the coroner peeling back part of the scalp. (Exhibit 94-10.) The admission of the slides was not an error, much less fundamental error. All the pictures depicted injuries suffered by the victim and each could be described by a witness via oral testimony, thus meeting the general criteria of admissibility for photographs. Phillips v. State, 550 N.E.2d 1290 (Ind.1990). Admission of pictures of a homicide victim is not reversible error if the pictures are relevant and the relevance is not outweighed by a tendency to inflame or impassion the jury against the defense. Webster v. State, 426 N.E.2d 1295 (Ind.1981). Although the slides are close-ups of Griffin's injuries, none of the pictures at issue are especially inflammatory. It is not immediately apparent that Allen was (or would have been) deprived of a fair trial by their admission. As for the particular slide in which Griffin's scalp is peeled back, Exhibit 94-10, we agree with Allen it was erroneously admitted. Although the State argues the slide showed a potentially mortal wound otherwise obscured by the victim's hair, autopsy photographs are generally inadmissible if they show the body in an altered condition. Loy v. State, 436 N.E.2d 1125, 1128 (Ind. 1982) (Such a display may impute the handiwork of the physician to the accused assailant and thereby render the defendant responsible in the minds of the jurors for the cuts, incisions, and indignity of an autopsy.). An objection to this slide's admission probably would have been sustained because the relevant fact substantiated by the slide was cumulative of other evidence of Griffin's cause of death. Still, the slide's admission was not fundamental error. While the slide reveals a deep wound and is certainly unpleasant to view, its admission was harmless in view of the overwhelming evidence properly admitted to prove the cause of death.
Allen claims he was denied due process by the trial court's refusal to instruct on the lesser included offense of theft on Count III, the robbery charge. Although a guilt-phase issue, the gravity of this claim is its potential effect on sentencing: a verdict of guilty for theft instead of robbery would have prevented the State from proving the charged death penalty aggravator, intentional killing during the commission of a robbery. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-50-2-9(b)(1) (West 1986). Indiana courts utilize a three-step process for determining whether an instruction on a lesser included offense must be given. Wright v. State, 658 N.E.2d 563 (Ind.1995). First, we read the language of the charging document to determine whether the alleged lesser included offense is inherently included in the crime charged. Id. at 566. If the offense is inherently included in the greater, then the trial court proceeds to step three. But, if the court determines that it is not inherently included, then the court must take the second step of comparing the statute that defines the alleged lesser included offense with the charging instrument in order to determine if the lesser offense is factually included in the charge. Id. at 567. Finally, once the trial court has determined that an lesser offense is included either inherently or factually, the court must look at the evidence presented by both parties to decide whether there is a serious evidentiary dispute about the element or elements distinguishing the greater from the lesser offense such that a jury could conclude that the lesser included offense was committed but not the greater. Id. If the answer to this question is yes, then instruction on the lesser included offense must be given, and failure to do so is reversible error. Id.; Gordon v. State, 499 N.E.2d 228 (Ind.1986). This rule has been recognized as constitutional by the Supreme Court. Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 636 n. 12, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 2389 n. 12, 65 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980) (citing with approval Pruitt v. State, 269 Ind. 559, 382 N.E.2d 150 (1978) (test for whether refusal of instruction on lesser included offense is error is whether evidence was adduced at trial to which the lesser included offense instruction was applicable)). Nevertheless, Allen would have us alter the rule depending on either the circumstantial or direct nature of the evidence or whether, without regard to the evidence, the State has negated every theory of defense conceived by counsel. We decline. Applying the process outlined above, we conclude that the trial court was correct in denying Allen's request for an instruction on theft. Theft is a lesser included offense of robbery, Landers v. State, 464 N.E.2d 912 (Ind.1984), but there is no evidence of simple theft in the record. In fact, the evidence points the other way. The crime scene is a picture of violence. The victim lies with a knife in her chest. A bloody and broken toaster lies near her head. There is damage to a closet door, a kitchen counter, and so on. A camera box sits without the camera. All in all, plenty of force and evidence of missing property. Against this evidence, Allen's counsel suggests, for instance, that perhaps the victim had given Allen the camera, or that he may have gained it on some other day. This speculation does not create a serious evidentiary dispute. The trial court correctly refused to instruct on theft.
Allen correctly states that a trial court is obligated to conduct a psychiatric examination and competency hearing where `reasonable grounds' exist for believing the defendant is incompetent to stand trial. (Appellant's Br. at 114 (citing Ind.Code § 35-36-3-1)). We review a trial court's decisions on this point for abuse of discretion. Walker v. State, 621 N.E.2d 627 (Ind.1993). We can see no reason why the trial court had the duty to act of its own accord as Allen now claims. Allen contends that notice of the insanity defense filed by his first attorney put the court on notice of his incompetence to stand trial. He maintains that the mere fact that this notice was filed obligated the trial court to order sua sponte a psychiatric evaluation. Allen argues this in spite of the fact that his appointed trial counsel withdrew both the notice and the motion for psychiatric examination (which had been granted) when abandoning the insanity defense. Essentially, present counsel asks us to oblige trial courts to second-guess defense counsel's strategy when the insanity defense is abandoned. We will not. A trial court is permitted, if not expected, to rely on the strategic judgment of counsel. In any event, a request for psychiatric examination is not evidence of incompetency. Cook v. State, 258 Ind. 667, 284 N.E.2d 81 (1972). There is no record of police awareness of Allen's alleged mental incompetence prior to or during interrogation. Likewise, there was no evidence tending to give the trial court reason to suspect that Allen was mentally retarded. We find no error.