Opinion ID: 516040
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure Adequately to Investigate Laws' Psychological Background.

Text: 57 Laws makes the argument, maintained throughout the state court post-conviction proceedings, that his trial counsel failed adequately to investigate his past psychiatric treatment record and to explore a possible psychologically-based defense. In this regard, Laws claims that his psychiatric condition was heavily influenced by his service in Vietnam, and argues that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to present mitigating evidence relating to his Vietnam experience and its effect on him. 10 Laws had undergone a psychiatric examination in the Mississippi State Hospital in 1974-75 while serving time in the Mississippi Penitentiary on an aggravated assault charge. Trial counsel, however, relied on a psychiatric examination of Laws conducted on September 22, 1981, at the Fulton State Hospital in connection with one of the two other capital murder charges which had been brought against Laws. This exam was much closer in time to the acts of murder and trials than the five-year old Mississippi exam. Further, the doctor at Fulton took into consideration the Mississippi exam. The Fulton State Hospital examination, which took into account Laws' prior Mississippi examination, concluded that Laws was mentally capable of standing trial, and that he was able to know and appreciate the nature, quality and wrongfulness of the murders when he committed them and had been capable of conforming his conduct to the requirements of the law. The record regarding this issue at the Rule 27.26 hearing is as follows: 58 Q. What were the results of this examination that you were aware of before the trial? 59 A. [Laws' trial counsel] The findings were, from Roman Numeral VIII, that the accused had no mental disease or defect within the meaning of Section 552.010, and that Leonard had the capacity to understand the proceedings against him and knew and appreciated the nature and wrongfulness of his conduct. 60 Q. And do they also, on page four of this document, talk about an evaluation in Mississippi and what the diagnosis there was? 61