Opinion ID: 2546038
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Incompetency at Trial

Text: Newman's first ground for relief is his claim that he was incompetent to stand trial. At a pretrial hearing, Newman presented the testimony of Dr. Mallory, who examined Newman prior to trial. Dr. Mallory testified that Newman was competent to stand trial and rational enough to make decisions regarding his case. Newman, 353 Ark. at 269, 106 S.W.3d at 445. The circuit court found that Newman was competent to stand trial. Id., 106 S.W.3d at 445. We affirmed the circuit court's finding, stating that Dr. Mallory's opinion is substantial evidence of Newman's competency to stand trial. Id. at 287, 106 S.W.3d at 457. Newman asserts in his petition that he will prove at a hearing in the circuit court that, contrary to Dr. Mallory's opinion, he was incompetent to stand trial because he suffers from a debilitating combination of psychiatric illnesses and cognitive impairments that deprived him of the capacity to fully understand the proceedings against him or to assist effectively and rationally in his own defense. He avers that Pablo Stewart, M.D., a psychiatrist, will testify that Newman suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder, chronic, with resultant major depressive disorder, recurrent, and polysubstance dependence. Newman states that Ricardo Weinstein, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist, will testify that his neuropsychological evaluation of Newman revealed that Newman has severely impaired cognitive functioning, including significantly subaverage intellectual functioning and severe deficits in executive functioning. Additionally, Newman states that family members will attest that he endured a horrific childhood, during which he was subjected to extreme physical and psychological abuse, neglect, abandonment, and loss, and that Drs. Stewart and Weinstein will explain how these experiences devastated his development and mental health. Newman states that Drs. Stewart and Weinstein will both testify that, in their professional opinion, Newman was incompetent to stand trial in 2002. Attached to Newman's petition are numerous exhibits, including medical reports supporting the conclusions of Drs. Stewart and Weinstein, as well as declarations from family members supporting Newman's claims about his childhood. Newman acknowledges that he has sought the death penalty in this case and that he attempted to waive his direct appeal. He states that he was not motivated to secure a death sentence because of remorse or desire to take responsibility for a wrong he committed; to the contrary, he claims that he is entirely innocent of the murder. He claims that he wished to be executed because his impaired thinking made him believe that death is more bearable than continuing to live. In further support of his petition, Newman states that new evidence has come to light that shows that Dr. Mallory's conclusions regarding his competency to stand trial are unreliable. In November 2007, Dr. Mallory testified at an evidentiary hearing held in connection with Newman's federal habeas corpus proceeding. Newman points to Dr. Mallory's testimony in federal court and presumes that Dr. Mallory would testify similarly at a circuit court hearing regarding a petition for writ of error coram nobis. Dr. Mallory acknowledged that the IQ test Dr. Weinstein administered, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III), is a very reliable test and the most widely used test in the world. However, Dr. Mallory instead administered the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) and the Kent Test to assess Newman's level of cognitive functioning. Newman contends that neither of these tests are appropriate for determining a person's IQ. Dr. Mallory acknowledged that the manual of the WASI specifically states that the instrument should not be used alone to make diagnoses and should not be used for legal or judicial purposes. In addition, Dr. Mallory acknowledged that the Kent Test was not a commercially available instrument, but a homemade test that a psychiatrist once passed [him]. Dr. Mallory explained that the Kent Test consisted of ten questions, such as, What is sand used for? and What are the names of some fish? A person earns points for knowing answers to the questions. Dr. Mallory agreed that the Kent Test had not been shown to have any reliability or validity or to have any ability to accurately predict intellectual functioning. Nevertheless, Dr. Mallory stated that, on the basis of Newman's score on the Kent Test, Newman had an average intellectual ability and there was no need for further intelligence testing. Dr. Mallory admitted that he made a significant scoring error when he administered the WASI to Newman. Specifically, Dr. Mallory scored Newman's results using the norms for the wrong age group, erroneously inflating Newman's scores on all subparts of the test. Correctly scored, Newman's verbal IQ score was 80, rather than 84, as Dr. Mallory had reported; Newman's performance IQ score was 72, rather than 77; and his full scale IQ score was 75, not 78. Dr. Mallory indicated that a full-scale IQ score of 75 would necessitate a further investigation of Newman's cognitive function. Dr. Mallory admitted that he certainly made a big error. According to his testimony at the habeas hearing, Dr. Mallory also made scoring errors when administering the Folstein Mini Mental Status Exam. Dr. Mallory reported that Newman had scored 29 points on the test, a result that indicated no potential cognitive impairment. However, Dr. Mallory admitted that he had added the points incorrectly and that he had actually awarded Newman only 24 points. Dr. Mallory further stated that the manual for the test recommends a cutoff score of 26 as indicating potential cognitive impairment. Newman avers that Dr. Mallory also erroneously inflated Newman's scores on the Folstein exam. Dr. Mallory admitted that he awarded Newman a point for knowing the correct date when Newman had given the wrong date. Dr. Mallory also admitted that he gave Newman a point for naming the county in which the evaluation was taking place, even though Newman's first two guesses were wrong. Dr. Mallory testified that he gave Newman two points for correct completion of serial sevens, a task that requires the test subject to count backward from 100 in sevens (100, 93, 86, etc.), despite Newman's inability to complete the task. Instead, Dr. Mallory substituted serial threes, a task that only required the subject to count backward from 20 by threes. Dr. Mallory admitted that he improperly awarded Newman a point for sentence composition, even though the sentence was difficult to comprehend. In addition, Dr. Mallory stated that he awarded Newman a point for drawing two pentagons, even though one of the shapes was drawn with only four sides, an example the test manual stated should be scored at zero. With all of the erroneously awarded points deducted, Newman's score would be an 18, rather than a 29, which Dr. Mallory had reported at trial. Newman contends that the evidence of his incompetence to stand trial is overwhelming and that this court should find that Newman has amply made the showing of probable merit needed for leave to file a coram nobis petition with respect to this claim and remand to the circuit court for a hearing. We agree that Newman appears to have a meritorious claim regarding his incompetence at the time of trial. Dr. Mallory provided the only evidence of Newman's competency to stand trial. Subsequently, in federal district court, Dr. Mallory admitted that he made significant scoring errors when administering tests to Newman. These scoring errors undermine the validity and reliability of Dr. Mallory's testimony at trial. Dr. Mallory's declaration of Newman's competence is suspect, as it was based upon flawed data. This, together with Newman's exhibits, affidavits, and proposed testimony in support of his petition, warrant granting permission for leave of the court in this case. We reject the State's argument that Newman's petition must be denied because he has not been diligent in pursuing the claim. The State asserts that Newman's delay in bringing the petition is evidenced by his choice of forum, in that Newman did not bring his application to this court until directed to do so by the federal district court so that he could satisfy the exhaustion doctrine and advance his claims there. Newman asserts that, he could not have raised his claim of incompetence at trial because, at the time of trial, trial counsel was ignorant of Newman's mental impairments and resulting incompetency. Newman points out that trial counsel secured an evaluation of Newman by the State Hospital, but as noted, the resulting report declared Newman free from mental disease and fully competent to proceed. Trial counsel did not obtain the data underlying the evaluation, and thus was unaware that the tests contained scoring errors. Further, trial counsel did not obtain an evaluation of Newman by independent mental health experts and did not investigate Newman's history and background or talk to family members. Newman also states that, in no way can he be accused of lacking diligence following completion of his trial. With the exception of a lawyer appointed as amicus curiae of this court during his mandatory direct appeal, whom Newman did not meet, Newman was without counsel between his trial in June 2002, and September 2004, when present counsel was appointed to represent him. Newman asserts that he continued to be mentally incompetent during this time. Newman's present counsel attempted to initiate Rule 37 proceedings on Newman's behalf, but Newman dismissed those proceedings. Newman's present counsel asserts, again, that Newman was incompetent at that time. Newman's present counsel then proceeded to federal court, filing a federal habeas petition on December 20, 2005. Finally, Newman points out that the State has steadfastly maintained that no state-court remedies whatsoever remained available to Newman and that it would be grossly unfair to allow the State to take the position for over four years that Newman may not seek relief in its courts and then, when Newman is required to seek such relief, to permit it to argue that his application should be denied on the ground that he should have filed in state court earlier. In Echols, we denied an application for permission to file a petition for writ of error coram nobis on the ground of incompetency to stand trial due to petitioner's lack of diligence. 354 Ark. at 419, 125 S.W.3d at 157. Based upon the record before us in Echols, we concluded that petitioner's defense team was aware of petitioner's history of mental treatments at the time of trial and noted that the same documents that were offered in support of the application were in counsel's possession, and placed in the record, at the time of trial. Id., 125 S.W.3d at 157. We stated that counsel could have raised the issue at trial, or at a minimum, could have pursued the issue of petitioner's incompetency in Rule 37 proceedings. Id. at 419-20, 125 S.W.3d at 157. Here, in contrast, it appears that Newman was diligent in pursuing a claim of incompetence. Upon learning of the improperly scored tests, which supported the finding of competence to stand trial, present counsel began pursuing relief on behalf of Newman. Efforts to pursue the claim in a Rule 37 petition were thwarted by Newman; present counsel maintains that Newman's actions are a result of his continuing incompetence. The State's contention that Newman's lack of diligence is demonstrated by his choice of forum pursuing relief in the federal court, as opposed to pursuing relief in this courtis not persuasive, especially given the fact that the State itself asserted in federal court that Newman had exhausted all of his remedies in state court. Based on the foregoing, we hold that Newman exercised diligence in pursuing his claim of incompetence. In sum, after considering the reasonableness of the allegations and their probable truth, and after concluding that Newman was diligent in pursuing his claim, we grant Newman's petition to reinvest jurisdiction in the circuit court to seek a writ of error coram nobis on his claim of his incompetence to stand trial.