Opinion ID: 1761289
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Admissibility of Statement Made to Sanity Commission Member

Text: Defendant urges that it was error for the trial court to permit Dr. Hippolite Landry to testify as a fact witness as to defendant's statement, elicited in the absence of counsel, that defendant suffered no physical withdrawal in jail. On April 8, 1993, the public defender requested that a sanity commission be appointed to inquire into the defendant's capacity to assist in his defense and the defendant's mental capacity at the time of the offense. The court appointed Hippolite Landry, the coroner, and F.A. Silva, a psychiatrist, to the sanity commission. Dr. Landry examined defendant on May 19, 1993, in the absence of counsel. The two doctors testified at a pre-trial hearing on July 14, 1993, after which the court found the defendant competent to stand trial. At this hearing, the defendant withdrew his former not guilty plea and entered the dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. In the guilt phase of trial, defendant presented evidence that at the time of the killings, he was suffering from withdrawal symptoms from the drug Xanax and from alcohol. On rebuttal, the state called Dr. Landry who testified that defendant understood the difference between right and wrong at the time of the murders. Dr. Landry testified, over defense objection, that chemical dependency was one of the factors he used to make this determination. He testified that at his May 19, 1993 interview with defendant, he asked defendant if he had experienced any symptoms of withdrawal from drug use and defendant answered no physical withdrawals in jail. Defendant claims that this statement was elicited to rebut the defense that defendant suffered withdrawal at the time of the offense because if he did not suffer withdrawal in jail, surely he could not have suffered withdrawal at the time of the offense. Defendant claims that this statement is inadmissible as counsel was not present at the sanity commission interview and Dr. Landry was testifying as a fact witness. [4] There is no requirement that defense counsel be permitted to be present during the defendant's examination by a sanity commission as this is not a critical stage of the proceedings. State v. Jones, 359 So.2d 95 (La.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1049, 99 S.Ct. 727, 58 L.Ed.2d 708 (1978); State v. Breaux, 337 So.2d 182, 185 (La.1976). However, no inculpatory statement made to the examiners is admissible where defendant's guilt or innocence is at issue. Id. Furthermore, a defendant who places his sanity at issue by standing trial on a not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity plea waives any right to doctor-patient privilege with respect to sanity commission physicians. State v. Berry, 324 So.2d 822 (La.1976), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 954, 96 S.Ct. 1731, 48 L.Ed.2d 198 (1976). When an accused enters the dual plea he waives the doctor-patient privilege only as to such information as is genuinely relevant to the narrow issue tendered. State v. Aucoin, 362 So.2d 503, 505 (La.1978). We have held that the doctor-patient privilege is not intended to apply to information or opinions genuinely relevant to the narrow issue of the defendant's mental health or condition when tendered as an issue either at trial or at the penalty phase. State v. Brogdon, 457 So.2d 616, 627-628 (La.1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1111, 105 S.Ct. 2345, 85 L.Ed.2d 862 (1985). Here, the defense was intoxication/withdrawal and defendant entered the dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. The defendant had tendered his mental condition at the guilt phase, as well as urged a mental condition short of insanity at the penalty phase. The remark to Dr. Landry related to those narrow issues. It was not an inculpatory statement relating to defendant's guilt or innocence. The defense was therefore not entitled to exclude it. Assignment of Error No. IX lacks merit.