Opinion ID: 1761289
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Testimony of Psychologist Donald Hoppe

Text: Defendant claims that the testimony of psychologist Donald Hoppe that the defendant was untruthful, unrepentant and manipulative was inadmissible and that reliance on this testimony to support a death penalty violates the defendant's due process and Eighth Amendment rights to a fair and reliable determination. The defense called psychologist Mark Zimmerman at the guilt phase in support of its intoxication/withdrawal defense. Dr. Zimmerman had evaluated the defendant prior to trial and testified as to his findings, particularly the result of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Zimmerman testified that defendant had an addictive personality, being addicted to drugs and alcohol, which also caused a mild brain dysfunction. Based on defendant's testimony that he had little or no alcohol and Xanax on the day of the murders and his sense of being in a tunnel at the time of the offense, Zimmerman expressed the opinion that defendant may have been going through detoxification or withdrawal, and that it was more probable than not that the detoxification affected defendant's ability to distinguish between right and wrong at the time of the shootings. Defendant scored average-normal on IQ and very high on those sections of the MMPI reflecting addictive personality traits. Zimmerman found no evidence of psychosis or hallucinations. He testified that based on the MMPI scores, defendant was not lying on his answers, that defendant was passive, rather than aggressively violent, that he was prone to being influenced by others and had a strong need to be accepted by others. The state called clinical psychologist Donald Hoppe in rebuttal. Dr. Hoppe had heard Dr. Zimmerman's testimony and had reviewed the test results, including those from the MMPI, and testified concerning the results of those tests. He then offered rebuttal testimony which the defense admits was proper. He testified that Zimmerman had miscalculated defendant's IQ (it should have been 98 rather than 93), he disagreed with Zimmerman that there was a connection between defendant's mild brain dysfunction and his addictive personality and rejected the term addictive personality altogether. He further disagreed with Zimmerman that depersonalization was related to withdrawal or with an individual's ability to distinguish right from wrong. He further criticized Zimmerman for diagnosing defendant's mental state without getting additional information, as drug addicts were generally not reliable in reporting the things that happened to them. Without objection, Dr. Hoppe then testified to other matters resulting from the MMPI testing that Dr. Zimmerman did not include in his testimony: [the person] was not so disturbed as to invalidate the test ... [he] is a person who has trouble being honest ... who has trouble telling the truth. He tends to be opinionated... rather narrow minded ... insists on having things go his way, and has no problem with distorting the facts to [help] himself ... this is a person who seems to have some investment in appearing psychologically disturbed ... who may be exaggerating how disturbed he is for some gain.... The profile that was produced by this individual ... suggests that this is a man who is very preoccupied with his physical symptoms and who is psychologically very naive .... [such people] tend to be ... hypochondriacs ... never satisfied.... This profile also suggests that this is a man who is very attention seeking and emotionally very needy .... emotionally very immature ... and who likes to be pampered and babied, and who will go to any means for that to happen.... I agree [with Dr. Zimmerman that this is a man who needs to be accepted] ... [But it is] absolutely not [true that this is a man who will do what others want him to do].... This is a person who has a lot of problems with anger. He probably tends to be largely passive/aggressive, which means that when he's angry, he kinda sits on it and hold[s] it in. But with the right provocation, he can explode very ragefully and very destructively, you know, with, with almost no forewarning. If you have a person [like this] and you give them drugs... then there's potential for this person to become very, very violent ... this is a man who is irritable ... agitated ... tends to act [] out.... The final thing ... in this profile is that this is a man ... who has a strong kind of grudge or resentment. He's blaming. He does not feel that he's responsible for his behavior but ... everybody else [is]. When discussing the depression scale of the MMPI, Dr. Hoppe testified that the scores suggested that on the day that he took the test, he wasn't feeling particularly sad or guilty or remorseful about anything. Defense counsel objected that Dr. Hoppe was saying that defendant did not have any remorse, but the trial court overruled the objection, ruling that the witness was interpreting the test results and that the state was entitled to give its view of the data as had the defense. Under cross-examination, Dr. Hoppe conceded that his testimony represented his opinions of test data only; that the MMPI alone should not be used for diagnostic purposes; and that he was not making an evaluation or diagnosis of the defendant nor, in fact, had he reached any conclusion or firm opinions about the defendant at all. He was merely interpreting the test data. The defense complains that the state used Hoppe's testimony to devastating effect in oral argument at the guilt and penalty phase. [6] The defense argues that it is inadmissible as rebuttal evidence because it did not rebut any of Zimmerman's testimony. We disagree. Rebuttal evidence is that which explains, repels, disproves or counteracts. State v. Deboue, supra at 362. The defense opened the door to Dr. Hoppe's testimony when it elicited testimony from Dr. Zimmerman that the MMPI data showed defendant's scores on the lie scale and the faking scale to be within the normal range, that he was passive and that violence was uncommon to him, that he was prone to be influenced by other people, and that he had a strong need to be accepted by other people and was going to do what other people that he saw as important wanted him to do. Dr. Hoppe's testimony merely explained and counteracted this testimony. As such, it was proper rebuttal testimony. Had the defense believed that the state introduced new issues or evidence, it could have attempted to meet that evidence on surrebuttal. [7] Assignment of Error No. II lacks merit.