Opinion ID: 1771702
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 21

Heading: Denial of Expert on Prison Life

Text: Defendant also claims that the court erred when it did not provide funds for a prison life expert. During its initial ruling, the trial court indicated that evidence provided by a prison-life expert would be inadmissible. The court of appeal granted supervisory writs on the issue and ordered the trial court to reconsider its ruling in light of Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U.S. 1, 106 S.Ct. 1669, 90 L.Ed.2d 1 (1986), which held that evidence on a defendant's adjustment and good behavior while in prison is within the defendant's right to present all relevant evidence in mitigation. State v. Brumfield, 93-0805 (La.App. 1st Cir.1993). Nonetheless, the trial court did not provide defendant funds for such an expert. Notwithstanding the Supreme Court's dictate in Skipper, defendant fails to show that the trial court erred in refusing to provide funding for a prison life expert. In fact, when questioned about defendant's prospective adaptation to prison life, social worker Dr. Cecile Guin informed the jury that in a large group, if it's lots of people, lots of chaos, [defendant] doesn't do well. But if you leave him alone, put him in a, you know, a structure with a controlled environment, then he does much better. Moreover, as discussed below in the section on the exclusion of alleged mitigation evidence, Dr. Guin also testified about defendant's disciplinary record while incarcerated. Under these circumstances, defendant fails to show a reasonable probability both that an expert would be of assistance to the defense and that the denial of expert assistance [resulted] in a fundamentally unfair trial. Touchet, 642 So.2d at 1216.