Opinion ID: 1557922
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Alleged Errors in Testimony of State's Expert Witness

Text: In assignments of error Nos. 2 and 14, defendant alleges Dr. Hoppe, the State's expert witness, misstated the law on mental retardation when he testified that there is an IQ cut-off of 70. Thus, defendant contends the jury's sentence of death violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Defendant avers Dr. Hoppe incorrectly testified that an IQ score over 70 precluded a diagnosis of mental retardation, because Louisiana law does not specify a numerical cutoff. He quotes Dr. Hoppe's testimony: Something that keeps getting talked about here is this issue of mental retardation. There is a very clear standard for mental retardation. It has been around for over a hundred years. It is the one and only standard that we have. And it is that there be, first and foremost, an I.Q. of less than seventy. And then, in addition to that, that the person is shown to have a failure to develop adaptation, you know, to develop life-skills. But, first of all, you have to establish an I.Q. of less than seventy, beginning before the age of eighteen. We find defendant's claim is without merit. First, defense counsel made no objection to Dr. Hoppe's testimony, nor did counsel cross-examine the witness to expose to jurors what the defendant now alleges were the witness's erroneous statements of the law. Second, while La.Code Crim. Proc. art. 905.5.1 does not specify a threshold IQ score for a finding of mental retardation, the Supreme Court in Atkins noted that `[m]ild' mental retardation is typically used to describe people with an IQ level of 50-55 to approximately 70. Atkins, 536 U.S. at 309, n. 3, 122 S.Ct. at 2245, n. 3 (quoting DSM-IV, pp. 42-43). Thus, the DSM-IV itself, relied upon and referenced by Dr. Hoppe and, to some extent, Dr. Cenac, indicates that an IQ of 70 marks a potential threshold for mild mental retardation. Indeed, Dr. Cenac on cross-examination agreed that the DSM-IV so provided. [16] At any rate, while we are careful to point out that neither our legislature nor our jurisprudence has set forth a specific IQ score for determining intellectual functioning in the capital sentencing context, this court, like the Atkins Court, has recognized that mental health experts and the medical literature have acknowledged an IQ of 70 as the line demarcating mild mental retardation. See State v. Anderson, 06-2987, p. 16 (La.9/9/08), 996 So.2d 973, 989; State v. Williams, 01-1650, pp. 23-24, 831 So.2d at 853-54; State v. Dunn, 01-1635, p. 28 (La.11/1/02), 831 So.2d 862, 885. Accordingly, in the testimony of Dr. Hoppe, a clinical psychologist who referenced the DSM-IV cited in Atkins, we detect nothing that would preclude the jury from rationally relying on his testimony. Moreover, as both Dr. Cenac and Dr. Hoppe explained, intellectual functioning is but one prong of the mental retardation equation: adaptive skills must also be considered in the analysis. A low I.Q. score, alone, does not equate to a finding of mental retardation. State v. Campbell, 06-0286, p. 25 (La.5/21/08), 983 So.2d 810, 829. Although defendant cites jurisprudence from various federal and state court decisions in which the threshold for the intellectual functioning prong has ranged between 70 and 75, he omits any discussion of the adaptive skills prong, which must also be considered in making a determination of mental retardation. As we determined earlier in this opinion, there was sufficient evidence upon which the jury could have reasonably found that the defendant failed to prove he also lacked adaptive skills, even if his IQ fell within the borderline range. Defendant's own testimony demonstrated a range of adaptive skills by which he had parlayed his street education to a relatively high level. In the face of this testimony from defendant, as well as that of Dr. Hoppe, the jury evidently made a credibility determination and found Dr. Cenac's assessment of defendant's claimed inadaptability unconvincing. Because we conclude there was no demonstrable error in Dr. Hoppe's testimony as to assessing intellectual functioning, and because there was another basis on which the jury could have reasonably found that defendant failed to prove mental retardation, we do not view the jury's apparent credibility determinations as irrational, and thus we find no violation of the defendant's constitutional rights.