Opinion ID: 1169823
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defendant had a due process right to present Dr. Karp's testimony

Text: Egelhoff, in which the five-to-four Court filed five separate opinions, reversed a Montana Supreme Court judgment. The Montana court held that due process was violated by a statute requiring Montana courts to reject evidence of voluntary intoxication when offered to rebut the mens rea element of a criminal offense. See State v. Egelhoff, 272 Mont. 114, 900 P.2d 260 (1995). In the United States Supreme Court, Justice Scalia wrote for the plurality, Justice Ginsberg filed a concurring opinion, Justice O'Connor filed a dissenting opinion in which three other justices joined, and Justices Souter and Breyer filed separate opinions, although they concurred in Justice O'Connor's dissent. The majority opinion in the present case is contrary to each and every opinion. In Egelhoff, the plurality acknowledged that due process guarantees a defendant the right to present evidence to rebut the elements of a charge but concluded there was no due process violation because the right to have a jury consider evidence of his voluntary intoxication in determining whether he possesses the requisite mental state was not a fundamental principle of justice. ___ U.S. at ___, 116 S.Ct. at 2015 (Scalia, J., Rehnquist, C.J., Kennedy and Thomas, JJ.) (citing Hale, Coke, and Blackstone). Justice Scalia noted that the common law had always disallowed voluntary intoxication as a defense. More important, as the earliest case cited by Justice Scalia indicates, it was not merely the state of voluntary intoxication or its concomitant effects on mens rea that permitted rejection of the defense but the fact that the defendant's unimpaired and voluntary act caused the intoxication. [I]f a person that is drunk kills another, this shall be Felony, and he shall be hanged for it, and yet he did it through Ignorance, for when he was drunk he had no Understanding nor Memory; but inasmuch as that Ignorance was occasioned by his own Act and Folly, and he might have avoided it, he shall not be privileged thereby. Id. at ___, 116 S.Ct. at 2018 (quoting Reniger v. Fogossa, 1 Plowd. 1, 19, 75 Eng.Rep. 1, 31 (K.B. 1550)) (emphasis added). [12] Unlike those who willingly become intoxicated, battered women and victims of child abuse do not voluntarily cause the defect in their mental process. Thus, mental impairment from battered woman's syndrome is fundamentally different than that caused by voluntary intoxication. Justice Ginsberg concurred in reversing the Montana Supreme Court's judgment only because she believed that by forbidding the use of voluntary intoxication as a defense the Montana legislature had simply redefined the mens rea element of the offense, `extract[ing] the entire subject of voluntary intoxication from the mens rea inquiry,' and thereby rendering evidence of voluntary intoxication logically irrelevant to proof of the requisite mental state. Id. at ___, 116 S.Ct. at 2024 (Ginsberg, J., concurring in the judgment). [13] Here, however, we are not dealing with a statute prohibiting battered woman's syndrome testimony. To the contrary, with the exception of voluntary intoxication the legislature has left all the statutorily possible mens rea formulations as elements of the statutes under which Defendant was convicted. See A.R.S. § 13-503. Because the evidence offered was logically very relevant to the requisite mens rea, this case presents the issue of whether a criminal defendant has the right to defend against every element of the charged offense  including the mens rea specified by the legislature  with relevant, credible, and competent evidence. Our legislature has required, not forbidden, the evidence offered. Applying Justice Ginsberg's views, we must therefore conclude that evidence bearing directly on the elements of the crime must be admitted under the constitution's due process guarantees. See Egelhoff, ___ U.S. at ___, 116 S.Ct. at 2024 (Ginsberg, J., concurring). If we then turn to the views expressed by Justice O'Connor, in which Justices Stevens, Breyer, and Souter joined, we again must conclude that Defendant's due process rights were violated. The legislature specified the mental states of intentional, knowing, reckless, or criminal negligence as elements of the crime. See A.R.S. § 13-3623(B)(1) through (3). With the offenses thusly defined, a defendant has the right to insist that the State prove beyond a reasonable doubt every element of an offense charged. Egelhoff, ___ U.S. at ___, 116 S.Ct. at 2027 (O'Connor, Stevens, Souter & Breyer, JJ., dissenting) (citing McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79, 85, 106 S.Ct. 2411, 2415-16, 91 L.Ed.2d 67 (1986); Patterson v. New York, 432 U.S. 197, 211, n. 12, 97 S.Ct. 2319, 2327 n. 12, 53 L.Ed.2d 281 (1977). It is wholly inconsistent, when the legislature requires proof of a specific mens rea, that the state may prevent the jury from considering evidence relevant to rebut that element of the crime. See Egelhoff, ___ U.S. at ___, 116 S.Ct. at 2028 (O'Connor, Stevens, Souter & Breyer, JJ., dissenting). It is even worse to do so when the different degrees of the crime turn on the question of mens rea and when Defendant's conviction turns on the degrees of the crime. The Due Process Clause protects those principle[s] of justice so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental. Patterson, 432 U.S. at 201-02, 97 S.Ct. at 2322. Indeed, the fabric of due process is spun from the thread of such fundamental principles as those guaranteeing the right of a criminal defendant to put the state's case to a meaningful adversarial test and to rebut each element of the charged offense with competent, credible, and relevant evidence. Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 294, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 1045, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973) (The right of an accused in a criminal trial to due process is, in essence, the right to a fair opportunity to defend against the State's accusations.); see also Crane v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 683, 690-91, 106 S.Ct. 2142, 2146, 90 L.Ed.2d 636 (1986); California v. Trombetta, 467 U.S. 479, 485, 104 S.Ct. 2528, 2532, 81 L.Ed.2d 413 (1984) (due process requires that criminal defendants be afforded a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense). Allowing the state to first determine the elements of the crime it wishes to punish, and then thwart the accused's defense by categorically disallowing the very evidence that would prove [her] innocent violates these principles. Egelhoff, ___ U.S. at ___, 116 S.Ct. at 2029 (O'Connor, Stevens, Souter & Breyer, JJ., dissenting). The majority virtually ignores any analysis of Egelhoff, instead relying for its conclusion on cases that do not withstand scrutiny on the due process issue. The majority cites primarily Fisher v. United States, 328 U.S. 463, 66 S.Ct. 1318, 90 L.Ed. 1382 (1946), and State v. Schantz, 98 Ariz. 200, 403 P.2d 521 (1965). These cases predate Crane (1986), Patterson (1977), and Chambers (1973). Fisher is actually irrelevant to the question before us. The issue in Fisher, as the Court characterized it, was the contention of the defense that the mental and emotional qualities of [the defendant] were of such a level at the time of the crime that he was incapable of deliberation and premeditation although he was then sane in the usual legal sense. 328 U.S. at 466, 66 S.Ct. at 1320 (emphasis added). As noted, incapacity is not Defendant's argument in this case. In Fisher, unlike the present case, the trial judge allowed the psychiatrist to testify, the defendant was allowed to present expert psychiatric evidence about his mental condition, and the jury was in fact instructed that: It is further contended that even if sane and responsible, there was no deliberate intent to kill, nor in fact any actual intent to kill. Therefore if not guilty by reason of insanity, the defendant at most is guilty only of second degree murder or manslaughter, according as you may find he acted with or without malice. Id. at 467 n. 3, 66 S.Ct. at 1320 n. 3. Thus, unlike our case, Fisher was permitted to introduce psychiatric testimony from which the jurors were instructed that they could infer he did not possess the requisite mental state. All that Fisher was properly denied was an instruction on diminished capacity or, as the court termed it, partial responsibility. In citing Fisher, today's majority confuses the discredited affirmative defense of diminished capacity with a defendant's due process right to present evidence negating an element of the crime charged. [14] The majority further argues that Fisher stands for the proposition that state legislatures may, without violating the constitution, preclude defendants from offering evidence of mental and psychological deficiencies to challenge elements of a crime. This contention is quite dubious. In Egelhoff, which involved Montana's preclusion of the mental and psychological deficiencies induced by voluntary intoxication, not one of the five opinions cited or relied on Fisher, and all opinions acknowledged a defendant's right to present evidence. The only question was whether that right extended to voluntary intoxication. The majority also overrules State v. Gonzales, 140 Ariz. 349, 681 P.2d 1368 (1984), concluding that Gonzales was improperly decided because it is contrary to Schantz and because the evidence offered in Gonzales was evidence of diminished capacity and therefore inadmissible. But the evidence in Gonzales was not evidence of diminished capacity at all; the defendant proffered and the trial court excluded evidence that defendant suffered from organic brain syndrome that impaired his cognitive functioning. The evidence was relevant to the issue of whether defendant, convicted of unlawful imprisonment, acted knowingly in restraining the victim. Id. at 352-53, 681 P.2d at 1371-72. We reversed the conviction in Gonzales, not because we were establishing the diminished capacity defense but because the trial court's exclusion of the testimony effectively precluded the defendant from introducing evidence essential to his mere presence defense. Id. at 351-52, 681 P.2d at 1370-71. In relying on Schantz in overruling Gonzales, the majority simply ignores Chambers and its progeny, including Egelhoff.