Opinion ID: 380839
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of Defendant's Sanity

Text: 40 The sufficient evidence that defendant killed Scottie Abernathy leads us to consider defendant's next contention that there was insufficient evidence of his legal responsibility for his conduct. In United States v. Frazier, 458 F.2d 911, 918 (8th Cir. 1972), we adopted the ALI test as the rule to be followed in determining the accused's sanity at the time of the alleged offense. 41 (1) A defendant is insane    if, at the time of the alleged criminal conduct, as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law. 42 (2) As used in this Article, the terms mental disease or defect do not include any abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise anti-social conduct. 43 Id. (footnote omitted). The district court instructed the jury in accord with the above test. 44 The defendant's insanity defense can be characterized as proceeding on three alternate theories. The first is that defendant's organic brain damage syndrome deprived him of the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct; the second is that the killing occurred during the postictal stage of an epileptic seizure, when defendant was not conscious of his behavior; and the third is that the killing occurred during a rage attack that a person with defendant's mental condition could not control and thus he lacked the capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. 45 Defendant was examined before trial by four psychiatrists (Drs. David Bean, Charles Lord, Daryl Stephenson, and Daniel Kennelly), three psychologists (Drs. Brian Lewis, Mary Curran, and Ronald Jorgenson), and two neurologists (Drs. Kenneth Koob and Carroll Isburg). All but neurologist Dr. Isburg testified at trial to offer their opinions concerning defendant's mental capacity at the time of the killing. We review those opinions and related evidence with respect to each of the three aspects of defendant's insanity defense. 46
47 The defense called as witnesses the psychologists Drs. Lewis and Curran and the psychiatrists Drs. Bean, Lord, and Stephenson. Relying primarily on psychological testing and interviews with the defendant, these witnesses testified, in substance, that defendant had a chronic organic brain syndrome (long term brain damage), which diminished his mental capacity to the extent that he could not judge right from wrong. Dr. Curran, for instance, testified that defendant never really understood that murder was wrong, and Dr. Lewis testified the defendant had a very very immature conception of right and wrong. 48 On cross-examination of the defense witnesses, however, it was elicited that many persons with organic brain syndromes and with defendant's IQ can distinguish right and wrong, and that defendant felt cheated or unfairly treated by Larry Abernathy. It was further elicited that defendant threatened to expose Larry Abernathy as being unfair to Indians, and that defendant may have evinced an awareness of right and wrong when he offered to pay for the jeans he had concealed under his clothes. 49 The government produced three expert witnesses in rebuttal, among them the psychiatrist Dr. Kennelly. Dr. Kennelly based his evaluation on about six hours of psychiatric interviews and on reports prepared by Drs. Bean, Stephenson, and Curran. Dr. Kennelly testified that defendant, when asked whether killing another person was wrong, replied that it was. Defendant also told Dr. Kennelly that Larry Abernathy had been unfair to defendant and to others and had lied about defendant. In response to a hypothetical question, Dr. Kennelly opined that a person who offered to pay for jeans that he had been caught shoplifting and who got angry when he thought he was being cheated was capable of telling right from wrong. 9 Dr. Kennelly testified that defendant's mental retardation was not severe or even moderate but only mild or borderline. Finally, Dr. Kennelly testified, as did every other expert, that defendant was non-psychotic not suffering from delusions or hallucinations or otherwise out of touch with reality. Like other experts, however, Dr. Kennelly did not dismiss the possibility of transient psychotic episodes.
50 Another aspect of defendant's insanity defense was that the killing of Scottie Abernathy may have been performed unconsciously while defendant was in the latter stage of an epileptic seizure. The experts agreed that defendant had regularly suffered epileptic seizures, the events of which he could not remember. These seizures would begin with a convulsive stage, which would last three to ten minutes. During this stage the defendant would be virtually immobile and incapable of directed conduct. During a subsequent, postictal stage, however, defendant would often perform complex activities. Of these activities, like those of the convulsive stage, defendant had no apparent consciousness. He could describe them only because others told him what he had done. This phenomenon of unconscious postictal activity some witnesses labeled psychomotor epilepsy. The testimony of expert and lay witnesses reveal the defendant had a long history of apparent psychomotor episodes. These episodes included turning off the cold water in a shower, walking out into the snow, walking along the river bank, jumping out of a window, climbing a piano, handing out money, playing with imaginary string, and playing with an imaginary fishing pole. 51 In none of these instances, significantly, did defendant direct violence toward another person. 10 Indeed, two of the government's expert witnesses psychiatrist Dr. Kennelly and neurologist Dr. Koob testified that in a psychomotor epileptic state a person could perform only stereotypic or automatic movements, not directed acts of violence such as beating someone with a baseball bat. To the same effect was the opinion of Dr. Isburg, the only other neurologist to examine defendant. 11 Two defense expert witnesses psychologist Drs. Lewis and Curran stated they would defer to a neurologist's opinion that directed violence was inconsistent with the postictal stage of an epileptic seizure. Another defense witness, psychiatrist Dr. Bean, stated that a person could commit a directed act of violence during seizure activity. But he acknowledged that planned, organized behavior, such as ambushing a person with a baseball bat, would be inconsistent with seizure phenomena. Only defense witness psychiatrist Dr. Lord, who acknowledged that he was not yet board certified, was willing to say that repeated flailing with a baseball bat could be consistent with the non-directed behavior of a postictal stage, and that he would disagree with the contrary conclusion of a neurologist.
52 Defendant's third insanity theory was that defendant's organic brain syndrome prevented him from controlling rage attacks that an ordinary person could control. The principal proponent of this theory was defense psychiatrist Dr. Bean who apparently relied on defendant's previous anger-related assaults against family members, see note 10 supra. Dr. Bean acknowledged, however, that his theory was highly conjectural and that he could be all wet. Dr. Bean also acknowledged the possibility that defendant was aware of the wrongfulness of his behavior at the time of the killing. In rebuttal, prosecution psychiatrist Dr. Kennelly spoke to the same point, contrasting uncontrollable anger with uncontrolled anger. He opined that anger is uncontrollable only for those who are very grossly psychotic or severely mentally retarded and that defendant fit into neither category. There was also evidence that defendant, although angry enough at Larry Abernathy to want to assault him in the Abernathy store, controlled his rage and left the store peaceably. 53 A criminal defendant is presumed sane, but the introduction of evidence of insanity dispels the presumption and subjects the prosecution to the burden of proving sanity beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Dresser, 542 F.2d 737, 742 (8th Cir. 1976). To reverse the conviction we must be satisfied that the prosecution's evidence was so weak that a reasonable juror would necessarily possess a reasonable doubt as to defendant's sanity. Dusky v. United States, 295 F.2d 743, 756 (8th Cir. 1961), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 998, 82 S.Ct. 625, 7 L.Ed.2d 536 (1962). 54 Although five of the nine experts who examined the defendant testified he may not have been or was not sane at the time of the killing, we conclude the contrary expert testimony and the reasonable inferences the jury could draw from other evidence justified the submission of the sanity issue to the jury. This is not a case in which reasonable jurors must necessarily harbor a reasonable doubt as to defendant's sanity. On the basis of the evidence before it the jury could find the defendant had the mental capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct and to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. The theory that the killing occurred as a result of seizure was strongly rebutted, and although the evidence showed defendant had had fits of rage, there was also evidence that defendant could control his rage. There was only conjectural evidence the theory of Dr. Bean, which was disputed by Dr. Kennelly that defendant's mental condition made some rage attacks uncontrollable. 55 After careful consideration of the entire record we are satisfied there was sufficient evidence to support the jury finding that defendant was sane at the time he committed the offense charged. 56 Affirmed.