Opinion ID: 464953
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Severance on the Basis of Inconsistent Defenses

Text: 5 Wright argues on appeal that the trial judge erred in denying his repeated motions for severance. Wright requested severance on the ground that he and Moss would assert inconsistent and hostile defenses. The decision to sever the trial of a defendant who has been properly joined for trial with a co-defendant under Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure is committed by Rule 14 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure to the discretion of the trial court; an appellate court can review a denial of a motion for severance only for abuse of discretion. See, e.g., United States v. Haldeman, 559 F.2d 31, 71 (D.C.Cir.1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 933, 97 S.Ct. 2641, 53 L.Ed.2d 250 (1977). What constitutes an abuse of discretion necessarily depends on the facts of each case. United States v. Johnson, 478 F.2d 1129, 1133 (5th Cir.1973). This circuit has repeatedly articulated, however, that the denial of a severance motion generally constitutes an abuse of discretion when the defendants present conflicting and irreconcilable defenses and there is a danger that the jury will unjustifiably infer that this conflict alone demonstrates that both are guilty. Rhone v. United States, 365 F.2d 980, 981 (D.C.Cir.1966); see also United States v. Haldeman, 559 F.2d at 71; United States v. Ehrlichman, 546 F.2d 910, 929 (D.C.Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1120, 97 S.Ct. 1155, 51 L.Ed.2d 570 (1977). Reversals under this standard, however, require a high degree of conflict between the defenses. In United States v. Ehrlichman, 546 F.2d at 929, for example, we declined to overturn the denial of severance because [t]here would have been no logical inconsistency in the jury's acceptance of the defenses presented by both defendants. After examining the details of Wright's theory of insanity and Moss' theory of duress, we do not find that the defenses present a sufficient degree of antagonism to require reversal of the trial judge. The presence of some hostility between Wright and Moss, and Moss' strategy of exculpating himself by inculpating Wright do not by themselves require separate trials. E.g., United States v. Ehrlichman, 546 F.2d at 929. 6 Wright points to two specific areas of conflict between his insanity defense and Moss' duress defense which he argues mandate severance. First, Wright argues that in order to present a duress defense, Moss had to show that Wright exercised control over Moss while Wright's insanity defense required Wright to show that he was unable to control himself. This argument for severance rests on an illusory conflict between the two defenses and greatly overreads Wright's insanity defense. To present an insanity defense under the then applicable law in the District of Columbia, Wright had to show that at the time of the kidnapping he was suffering from a mental disease or defect and that as a result of that disease or defect he lacked substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. See United States v. Brawner, 471 F.2d 969 (D.C.Cir.1972). Wright's psychiatrist, Dr. Hirschman, testified that Wright suffered from a narcissistic personality disorder which amounted to a mental disease or defect and that this disorder rendered Wright unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions. Nothing in Dr. Hirschman's theory of Wright's mental illness was inconsistent with Wright's potential to coerce Moss into carrying out the kidnapping scheme. To the contrary, Dr. Hirschman testified both that Wright was aggressive and that his thought processes were precise and logical. Dr. Hirschman also implied that Wright was quite capable of manipulating others. Tr. 957, 973. Dr. Hirschman never suggested that Wright's insanity caused him to be out of control in a sense that would preclude him from coercing Moss into carrying out the kidnapping. 7 The second purported conflict between the defenses of Wright and Moss concerns the death of Wright's former lover Tony Ivey. In Dr. Hirschman's opinion, one substantial factor contributing to Wright's mental illness and to the resulting kidnapping scheme was Wright's anguish over the violent murder of his lover, Tony Ivey. According to Dr. Hirschman, the death of Ivey, when compounded by the loss of Wright's mother from Alzheimer's disease and by his financial ruin, exacerbated his mental disorder and drove him to the kidnapping. Dr. Hirschman explained that Wright had an overpowering need to take back what he thought society owed him for taking his mother, his lover and his business. 8 Wright's defense presented Ivey as one of the few people Wright had ever loved, a person whose violent death was a substantial cause of the kidnapping scheme. Moss' defense presented the Wright-Ivey relationship in an entirely different light. Moss testified that Wright told Moss that he had managed to have Ivey murdered without incurring police suspicion. The implication drawn by Moss was that Wright could also arrange to have Moss and his family killed if Moss failed to cooperate. On appeal, Wright argues that this aspect of Moss' defense undermined his presentation of the death of Ivey as a plausible motivation for the kidnapping and made it virtually impossible for Wright to establish the necessary degree of mental illness for a credible insanity defense. 9 We acknowledge that this second conflict between the two defenses is a real one; however, not every conflict between defenses offers a sufficient ground to reverse a denial of severance by a district judge. We do not find the magnitude of the conflict sufficient to render the defenses as a whole so contradictory as to raise an appreciable danger that the jury would convict because of the inconsistency. The inconsistent treatment of the Wright-Ivey relationship would not logically require a jury to find Wright guilty if it acquitted Moss. We cannot accept Wright's characterization of the conflict between the defenses as undermining the core of his defense; the conflict simply did not go to the heart of Wright's insanity defense. To the contrary, the death of Ivey was only one of several factors leading up to the crime. More importantly, Wright's insanity defense was not contradicted solely or even primarily by Moss' defense. The government presented substantial evidence of its own to attack Wright's insanity defense. Cf. United States v. Leonard, 494 F.2d 955, 966-67 (D.C.Cir.1974). 10