Opinion ID: 380839
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Diminished Capacity to Appreciate Wrongfulness of Conduct

Text: 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.