Opinion ID: 1344103
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Evidence At The Habeas Proceeding

Text: The evidence Hance presented to the habeas court consisted mainly of an affidavit from Dr. Ralph Allsopp (a clinical psychologist who examined Hance on September 28, 1987) and affidavits from several of Hance's friends and relatives. Dr. Allsopp's affidavit stated that he administered a full battery of tests to Hance and relied upon affidavits from family and friends and part of the transcript of Hance's court-martial. [4] He stated it was his clinical impression that Mr. Hance suffers from a Personality Disorder with Paranoid, Dependent and Narcissistic features. In addition, it was his clinical impression that Mr. Hance suffers from Atypical Depression. [5] Dr. Allsopp's affidavit also included the following information: The conflicts Mr. Hance experiences in his relationship with women must be viewed in light of his relationship with women. His mother was seen as being good and kind to Mr. Hance and his sister but at the same time, she was unable to prevent her husband from abusing the children both mentally and physically. At an early age, Mr. Hance experienced incest, and found his father in bed with a prostitute. These conflicts carried over into his own marriage, which ultimately ended because of adultery on the part of his wife. Mr. Hance's marked paranoia and feelings of insecurity can perhaps be explained in part by the mental and physical abuse inflicted upon him and his sister by his father. As has already been noted, the more aggressive and assertive features of Mr. Hance's personality and at least a portion of his negative feelings toward women can be explained by his view of the paternal figure. Dr. Allsopp indicated that men like Hance excessively utilize a transfer of blame mechanism. He further stated that Hance has negative feelings toward women, . . . perceived man-woman relationships as being permeated by feelings of sadness, pain, hostility and homicidal ideation, . . . [and] perceives males as generally being very powerful, [and] as being assertive or aggressive in their stance toward women. The affidavits of the family and friends generally include information that was given to the jury by Hance and by Charles Westcott. The only affidavit providing considerably more information is that of Blanche Yvonne Boyd, Hance's sister. Boyd's affidavit states that she and Hance had a very close relationship and that he was a good student. Their mother had to work two jobs to provide food and clothing because their step-father worked irregularly and drank. Both she and Hance helped to earn money when they could. When she was nine and Hance was six, their step-father raped her as Hance watched. The step-father beat and intimidated them both, but she was beaten more frequently than he. When Hance was twelve he found his step-father in bed with a prostitute. Hance's ex-wife ran around on him, and on two different occasions she stabbed him with knives. Hance was a devoted and loving father to his child. Hance's retrial attorney testified that Hance at first insisted their defense should be I didn't do it. The attorney explained that, with difficulty, he persuaded Hance to agree to another approach: The first focus was to see if we could go back in on the sentencing stage and say, I didn't do it, that's what Mr. Hance wanted to do, and so, I went over the trial transcript from the original trial and his court martial, over and over, and he wanted to go in and try to deny it, and I finally, finally, after having to start preparing in that direction, we were able to convince him to go in the direction of, Let's go ahead and tell them the truth. You've told me the truth and I think you feel this pain, and I think they'll be able to see it, and the remorse, and the repentance, and we want to have some people say some good things about you and we want to be able to use Dr. Liberman, and I was able to get him to go along with that, but he didn't go along with it the first time around. The attorney explained why he chose Dr. Liberman: Dr. Liberman was the only psychiatrist or psychologist out of six or eight folks that had seen him, that was willing to say that he had a  Dr. Liberman was the only guy that would say he had a mental disorder and because of this mental disorder, he had a diminished capacity, and he wasn't rational, and he wasn't in his right mind, he was the only somebody that appeared to us that was willing to try to help us make out this diminished capacity defense. We were going to try to show diminished capacity equals diminished responsibility, equals diminished culpability, hopefully then diminished punishment, and Liberman was the only somebody that I had. The attorney testified that, despite his inquiries, Hance refused to talk about his family background in detail. Moreover, Hance specifically instructed his attorney to leave [his family] out of it; he did not want them involved in the case or called as witnesses. The attorney testified that he tried to move him away from that position, but Hance was adamant. He explained: [I]f I had [gone] against his wishes, I would have so alienated Mr. Hance, in my opinion, that I could never have gotten him to cooperate in what I thought as the only viable defense that he had, and that was to get on the stand and tell the truth. I would have just lost Hance if I had alienated him. ... [I]f I had gone in the direction that he was just adamant and opposed to, the family members coming in and saying whatever nice things they could say about him as he was growing up, I do not believe I could have had Hance get on that stand and tell that jury that truth, I just don't believe I could have accomplished it, and I thought that was our only chance to save him. . . . I think I'm aware of my duties as counsel, but I've got to make a judgment . . . do I go find [these family members] against his wishes, alienate him, lose him in order to have them, and I made a decision. I would rather have him; I didn't think I could have it both ways. I was convinced then I couldn't, and I don't know of anything other to tell you.