Opinion ID: 3052709
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Dr. Joseph Geffen

Text: Dr. Joseph Geffen, who examined McMurtrey in 1992, was asked to review McMurtrey’s jail records from early 1981 through August 1981. Reviewing all of the data, including the reports by various experts and doctors, relevant court records, and McMurtrey’s statements of former drug and alcohol abuse, Dr. Geffen found that the evidence suggested that McMurtrey was not competent at the time of trial. “I think that there’s a lot of supportive data that I reviewed . . . that would indicate that he may not have been competent, that he probably wasn’t at the time, at the time of trial.” When asked specifically whether there was “a reasonable question as to whether or not Mr. McMurtrey was or was not competent at MCMURTREY v. RYAN 11245 the time of his trial,” Dr. Geffen said, “Yes, I believe that there was.” Without having examined McMurtrey in 1981, Dr. Geffen acknowledged that he could not state conclusively whether McMurtrey was, in fact, competent during trial. He also stated that he would have thought there was a reasonable doubt even based on the materials available at the time of trial, without the benefit of the subsequent information. Dr. Geffen also described the difference between McMurtrey as described in 1981 and when he saw him in 1992. Dr. Geffen found the difference to be “striking.” I would say yes, that there was a striking difference between my impressions and the picture that I had built up prior to my seeing Mr. McMurtrey based on the — not only on the reports of all the doctors who examined him, but also including the mental health records of the jail, and some of the minute entries about his behavior, and then what I saw in 1992. The difference I think would tend to support the view of his having been quite dysfunctional and quite distant, his behavior having been quite problematic, psychologically, at the time, because when I saw him several years later, he had been free of drugs, he had not had any medication, any psy- chotropic medications, he had not had any street drugs; his mind was clear. Dr. Geffen went on to state that “McMurtrey was ashamed — that he felt ashamed of himself that he had actually avoided dealing with his trial and that he had engaged in taking so many drugs and substances which resulted in his not being able to be aware of what was going on and his not being able to assist better.”