Opinion ID: 400069
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: admissibility of evidence to rebut the insanity defense

Text: 43 We turn finally to the government's contention that, even if the evidence that is the subject of this appeal was obtained in violation of Hinckley's constitutional rights, its use should be permitted at trial for what the government styles a limited purpose-namely, to rebut the insanity defense on which Hinckley is expected to rely. As we noted at the outset, the government's arguments in this regard are novel; they strain logic and have no foundation in law, and we consequently reject them. 114 44 The government urges, to begin with, that the exclusionary rule applies only when the government seeks to use evidence to prove the basic elements of a crime. Reasoning broadly that because insanity is an affirmative defense, and proof of sanity is therefore not part of the prosecution's case-in-chief, 115 the government asserts that illegally obtained evidence can be used generally to rebut an insanity defense without jeopardizing constitutional principles. 116 The government stresses the inherently difficult nature of an insanity defense determination, and the concomitant need of the court to consider all available evidence on the issue. 45 Although it is true that in certain limited situations the Supreme Court has allowed the use of illegally obtained evidence for purposes collateral to direct proof of guilt, 117 an extension of such rulings to encompass the government's theory here would do wholesale violence to the rationale of these decisions and the underlying purposes of the fourth and fifth amendments. With respect to the fifth amendment, we cannot accept the government's contention that Miranda's deterrence rationale is adequately satisfied if the government is prohibited from using the illegally obtained evidence in its case-in-chief in a case of this kind. At the least, such a contention surely does not comport with reality in the world of an FBI or Secret Service agent. We are not confronted here with the typical police officer, but rather with the special concerns of highly trained agents whose job it is to prevent and investigate assassination attempts on major political figures. Such agents, we can assume, are fully aware of the critical importance of their demeanor testimony about a suspect arrested in the course of an attempted or actual assassination. And, ironically, the very broad scope of evidence that may be relevant to an insanity defense-cited by the government as a reason to dispense with Miranda's protections-will serve to enhance the possibility that any retreat from those protections will be abused. We thus find no reason for countenancing a broad exception to the Supreme Court's clearly enunciated policy against the use of tainted evidence simply because that evidence will be used to counter an insanity defense. 46 Were we to curtail the exclusionary rule in the drastic manner the government urges, we would provide little or no deterrence of constitutional violations against defendants whose sanity is the principal issue in the case. The government would be able, under the guise of rebuttal, to use any illegally obtained evidence relevant to the principal issue in the case-insanity. 47 The government's final argument for admission is based on a testimony-by-proxy theory. According to its view, if in the course of an insanity plea the defense puts forth testimony by expert witnesses on the defendant's mental state, that testimony is tantamount to the defendant taking the stand himself. Since it has been held permissible to use illegally obtained evidence to impeach testimony by the defendant, the government argues that it should also be possible to use the same testimony to rebut the expert psychiatric witnesses. In our view this theory cuts too wide a swath. Although it is indeed true that if a defendant takes the stand and testifies in a manner contradicted by illegally obtained evidence, that evidence can be used for the limited purpose of impeachment, 118 there is as yet no basis in law for converting this limited exception into a general license to use illegally obtained evidence for rebuttal purposes. 119 And if there were, the government does not adequately explain why it would single out the insanity defense for application of the testimony-by-proxy theory. All defense testimony is in a sense testimony by proxy, yet the government concedes that it would not seek to apply its rebuttal theory to an alibi or other affirmative defenses. We can find no reason for such a distinction. 48 For the foregoing reasons, the portions of the district court's order herein appealed are 49 Affirmed.