Opinion ID: 2584893
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Psychologists' Testimony

Text: Dr. William Jones, a licensed psychologist, testified that he met with defendant on two occasions: once in 1992 to perform a competency evaluation, and once in 1994 to perform a complete psychological evaluation. Dr. Jones opined that defendant was competent, of normal intelligence, and had good communication skills. Defendant was not psychotic, but appeared to be impulsive and immature to some degree, and had poor judgment, especially when under stress. Dr. Jones testified that in his opinion defendant was very self-centered, in the sense that he paid attention only to his own thoughts and opinions, and present-centered, in the sense that he concentrated on his present actions or statements without regard to their consistency with his past actions or statements or their consequences on his future. Defendant also had a grandiose view of his own intelligence and abilities. Dr. Jones observed that defendant appeared to have an unusually low level of anxiety, given his situation. Dr. Jones believed the psychological tests showed defendant had some resentment and sense of inferiority toward women, though the tests did not necessarily indicate defendant was abusive to women. Defendant also displayed weaknesses in sequential abilities, meaning he had some difficulty placing thoughts and ideas in their proper, logical order. Another licensed psychologist, Dr. Michael Leitman, also performed psychological testing on defendant and reported conclusions similar to those of Dr. Jones. Dr. Leitman found that defendant had a very complicated personality. Defendant contradicted himself and miss[ed] relevant cues, which caused him to act in ways he thought were correct, but which other people would view as wrong. In Dr. Leitman's opinion, defendant had difficulty handling stress and would keep people at a distance in order to prevent them from learning of defendant's self-perceived weaknesses and insecurities. Defendant did not exhibit violent tendencies, though he might become angry if other people viewed his actions as wrong when defendant thought he was being the good guy. Dr. Halford Fairchild, a social psychologist and professor of psychology specializing in African-American psychology, testified concerning his theory of probabilistic environmentalism, which he described as the view that a person's social and physical environments affect the probability that the person will follow a particular course in his or her life. According to Dr. Fairchild, some African-Americans have a feeling of alienation, in the sense of being detached from society and the dominant culture, and selfhatred and a devalued sense of self-worth, which may manifest itself in the form of violence against others.