Opinion ID: 1498122
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: THE INSANITY STANDARD AND THE DOCTRINE OF M.A.P. v. RYAN

Text: Appellant's first claim of error is the trial court's refusal to abandon the Durham-McDonald formulation of the insanity standard in favor of the ALI test which had been adopted by the Brawner court. The trial court concluded that under the principles enunciated in M.A.P. v. Ryan, supra , Durham-McDonald remained the controlling rule for the District of Columbia court system, and that it was not at liberty to substitute the Brawner test. We agree. In M.A.P. v. Ryan we addressed the issue of the impact of the Court Reorganization Act upon the relationship between our court system and the purely federal tribunals which share the same geographical jurisdiction. The Act declared this court to be the highest court [in] the District of Columbia, and eliminated the prior power of the United States Court of Appeals to review our judgments. D.C.Code 1973, § 11-102. Consistent with that grant of jurisprudential independence, in M.A.P. v. Ryan we declined to follow a decision by the circuit court which had been issued after the effective date of the statutory reorganization. [12] While we declared that post-reorganization decisions by the circuit court would be entitled to great respect, we explained (285 A.2d at 312): [W]e are not bound by the decisions of the United States Court of Appeals rendered after [February 1, 1971]. With respect to decisions of the United States Court of Appeals rendered prior to February 1, 1971, we recognize that they, like the decisions of this court, constitute the case law of the District of Columbia. As a matter of internal policy, we have adopted the rule that no division of this court will overrule a prior decision of this court or refuse to follow a decision of the United States Court of Appeals rendered prior to February 1, 1971, and that such result can only be accomplished by this court en banc. [Footnote omitted.] M.A.P. v. Ryan thus compelled the trial court's conclusion that it was not bound by the circuit court's decision in United States v. Brawner, supra . It apparently is appellant's position, however, that because the Brawner court abandoned its earlier decision in Durham, that pronouncement effectively removed Durham from the rolls as stare decisis, and thus left the trial court free to adopt the Brawner test prior to consideration of the question by this court. We disagree. Neither M.A.P. v. Ryan nor its progeny has examined the question of what, if any, precedential effect may be ascribed to those decisions of the circuit court which it overturns subsequent to court reorganization. Cf. In re Hodges, D.C. App., 325 A.2d 605 (1974). The problem of such derelict precedent falls between the separate principles of M.A.P. v. Ryan which (1) accord binding effect to pre-February 1971 decisions, and (2) give great respect to those decisions announced after February 1, 1971. We conclude that consistent with the policy considerations underlying the statutory provisions, the principles of M.A.P. v. Ryan should be supplemented by the corollary rule that regardless of their fate at the hands of the circuit court after February 1, 1971, decisions rendered by that court prior to such date remain valid and binding case law in the District of Columbia court system until such time as they may be modified or set aside by this court. Cf. Hughes v. United States, D.C.App., 308 A. 2d 238, 242 n. 12 (1973). The flaw in appellant's argument is that if Brawner is to be read as eliminating Durham as stare decisis, the circuit court would be afforded a negativing authority which would be inconsistent with the spirit and letter of the Court Reorganization Act and contrary to the principles enunciated in M.A.P. v. Ryan . Unquestionably the power to say what the law is not is as significant as the authority to declare what the law is. In our system of jurisprudence, which so greatly values the doctrine of stare decisis, the ability to shape and control the precedential foundations of the law is essential to the independence of a particular judicial structure. We therefore reject the notion that the respect to be accorded by us to decisions issued by the circuit court after February 1, 1971, may be stretched to include a principle of deference to that court's determinations that its own earlier decisions shall no longer be of any precedential value. Moreover, the need for preserving the controlling nature of cases such as Durham is supported by the institutional impact of a contrary conclusion. A rule which would deny binding authority to post-reorganization decisions of the circuit court, while recognizing that tribunal's authority to eliminate pre-1971 precedents, would pose a very real threat to the stability of our judicial system. Thus, a trial court not bound by the later cases yet unrestrained by the principles of the derelict precedent would be deprived of guidance, and its judges would be free to adopt variant and inconsistent rules. Similarly, to allow post-reorganization decisions of the circuit court to displace the previously shared case law would create an undesirable uncertainty with respect to the intervening decisions of this court which may have been grounded upon the disputed precedent. We do not overlook the unique legal and political circumstances which distinguish the District of Columbia from other jurisdictions, and we recognize the desirability and necessity of a spirit of cooperative coexistence between the two separate court systems which operate within its boundaries. Such considerations, however, must take a secondary position to our obligation to fulfill the mandate of the Court Reorganization Act by preserving the autonomous authority of our judicial structure. Cf. United States v. Thompson, 147 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 10-11, 452 F.2d 1333, 1342-43, cert. denied, 405 U.S. 998, 92 S. Ct. 1251, 31 L.Ed.2d 467 (1972). This responsibility requires that we not accord the circuit court the capacity to control the development of our law indirectly by altering the roots from which it has evolved. We affirm the trial court's determination that the Durham-McDonald formulation remained the controlling standard for an insanity defense in the Superior Court despite its abandonment in Brawner. As the charge to the jury was framed in accordance with the language of the controlling earlier decisions, the instructions were not erroneous. [13]