Opinion ID: 3052221
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Cross-Examine Dr. Brinkley

Text: Brown’s defense lawyers elected not to cross-examine Dr. Brinkley after he testified that Brown did not have a mental disorder for which lithium could be prescribed. As a result, the jury never heard that Dr. Brinkley made his evaluation and rendered his opinion without ever interviewing Brown, Brown’s family, or any of the doctors and therapists who had treated him in the past. Moreover, the jury never heard that Dr. Brinkley’s review of Brown’s records was incomplete and that he had no knowledge of many aspects of Brown’s background that are significant to diagnosing mood disorders. The majority claims that Brown’s attorneys made a tactical decision not to cross-examine Dr. Brinkley. Maj. Op. at 7612. That a decision can be labeled “tactical,” however, does not end the Strickland inquiry. Rather, “a reviewing court must consider the reasonableness of the investigation said to support that strategy.” Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 527 (citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691). Counsel performs inadequately at the penalty phase when he makes a tactical decision based upon inadequate investigation. See Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 536. Here, there is no evidence that the decision not to cross-examine Dr. Brinkley was based on a reasonable investigation. Cleven testified that he was prepared for the crossexamination and thought that it was important for the jury to hear concessions from Dr. Brinkley about the limited information upon which he based his testimony. During a break in the testimony, however, Mulligan, the lead attorney, ordered him not to conduct cross-examination. Cleven reported that Mulligan told him that “he had seen cross-examinations backfire” and that the points that Cleven wanted to get out in cross-examination could be made in the closing argument. 7632 BROWN v. UTTECHT Mulligan admitted that he played no role in preparing to cross-examine Dr. Brinkley because the doctor was Cleven’s witness, nor did he attend the short interview that the other two defense attorneys conducted with Dr. Brinkley on the morning of his testimony. Thus, Mulligan did not know in advance that Dr. Brinkley would testify that Brown did not have a disorder for which lithium should be prescribed and that Brown did not benefit from his lithium treatment at the Oregon state prison. If, like Cleven, Mulligan had played a role in preparing for cross-examination and if he, like Cleven, had been present at the interview with Dr. Brinkley, he likely would have come to the same conclusion as Cleven—that cross-examining Dr. Brinkley “would not pose any risk to [the case] at all” and indeed would likely result in answers that would “seriously call his testimony into question.” Additionally, Mulligan would have known that the points that Cleven wanted to make on cross-examination, namely that Dr. Brinkley made his assessment of Brown without interviewing him personally and on the basis of an incomplete review of Brown’s record, could not be made during the closing argument without first establishing their factual basis by questioning Dr. Brinkley. Instead, Mulligan made an uninformed, onthe-spot decision and forbade Cleven from conducting the cross-examination that might have helped save Brown’s life. As Cleven testified at the evidentiary hearing, the decision not to cross-examine Dr. Brinkley was not an informed one and it was not based on reasonable consideration of its merits and possible drawbacks. We need not defer to Mulligan’s hasty decision because it was made without the benefit of adequate investigation and thus fell below prevailing professional standards. I would hold that the decision not to cross-examine Dr. Brinkley constituted deficient performance. Dr. Brinkley’s testimony was quite prejudicial to Brown’s mitigation case. At trial, Dr. Brinkley testified that he did not see anything in the Oregon state prison records that explained why lithium was prescribed for Brown and that he “had no BROWN v. UTTECHT 7633 clear indication from the records [he] reviewed that [Brown] had a disorder for which lithium was appropriate.” As a result of defense counsel’s failure to cross-examine Dr. Brinkley, the prosecutor was able to argue in his closing argument that: Apparently, the defense didn’t dispute any of the findings of Dr. Brinkley. They never asked him questions. They apparently were satisfied with his expertise and his findings. The habeas evidentiary hearing confirms that if Cleven had cross-examined Dr. Brinkley, the jury would have heard that Dr. Brinkley never conducted an interview with Brown and that he did not review all of the records about Brown’s life history that Dr. Maiuro reviewed. In Dr. Brinkley’s deposition, taken prior to the evidentiary hearing, Brown’s counsel asked him about several pieces of information from Brown’s family history that Dr. Brinkley did not review prior to testifying at trial. Dr. Brinkley acknowledged that some of the information from Brown’s childhood that he did not review was “potentially relevant” to the diagnostic question of whether he suffered from a mood disorder. He stated that had he been aware that Brown’s mother had a mood disorder, it would have been relevant to his diagnosis. He admitted that he did not know that Brown started seeing a psychiatrist at age seven, and that his evaluation would have been “more complete” if he had seen the records of the psychiatrist who treated Brown as a child. He also said he did not know that Brown had been diagnosed with cyclothymic disorder in 1982 and that it “would have been of interest” to him since cyclothymic disorder may precede bipolar disorder. Moreover, he testified that the behavioral patterns Schick observed in Brown at the state prison are “consistent” with a mood disorder. This testimony all demonstrates that cross-examination would have revealed to the jury that Dr. Brinkley’s assess7634 BROWN v. UTTECHT ment was based upon an incomplete review of Brown’s relevant mental health history and family background. The majority claims that cross-examination of Dr. Brinkley would have backfired because he testified at the evidentiary hearing that Brown did not have manic syndrome, but instead was a sociopath. However, there is no suggestion that defense counsel intended to ask Dr. Brinkley for his diagnosis of Brown on cross-examination. Cleven planned to ask Dr. Brinkley whether he interviewed Brown and whether he reviewed all of the relevant records. Moreover, Dr. Brinkley’s testimony on cross-examination would not have damaged Brown any more than his testimony on direct. On direct, he explained at length that lithium was used to treat mood disorders including bipolar disorder and manic symptoms. He then testified that Brown did not suffer from a disorder that could be treated with lithium. The conclusion that the jury naturally reached using elementary logic is that Dr. Brinkley believed that Brown did not have manic syndrome or any other mood disorder. Dr. Brinkley was an experienced witness. Had he wanted to say explicitly that Brown did not have any mood disorder or had he been willing to offer a different diagnosis, he surely would have done so on direct. There was no need to wait for cross or redirect.5 The majority also argues that had he been cross-examined, Dr. Brinkley would have revealed that defense counsel were challenging his authority to interview Brown. Maj. Op. 7613. First, this contradicts the majority’s other claim that Dr. 5 The majority also notes that at oral argument, counsel conceded that had Dr. Brinkley testified as he did in his habeas deposition, it would have been unhelpful to Brown. Maj. Op. at 7613. However, there is no indication that defense counsel intended to ask the questions that would have elicited this unhelpful testimony. Cleven testified that he was prepared to ask Dr. Brinkley whether he interviewed Brown and whether he reviewed all of the relevant background materials before reaching his conclusions. He gave no indication that he would have asked Dr. Brinkley to render a complete diagnosis. BROWN v. UTTECHT 7635 Brinkley would have said that he had no interest in interviewing Brown because Brown was a liar. Maj. Op. at 7613. The majority cannot have it both ways. Second, the record does not indicate that defense counsel refused to permit an interview with Brown. The defense objected to the State’s attempt to have Dr. Brinkley observe Brown’s demeanor in the courtroom, but it invited the State to make a motion allowing Dr. Brinkley to interview him. The State failed to do so. It is more likely that the majority’s other explanation for Dr. Brinkley’s failure to interview Brown is accurate — that Dr. Brinkley did not think it was necessary because he thought that Brown was a liar. Maj. Op. 7613. This is a puzzling excuse for Dr. Brinkley to affirm given that he relied solely on the notes of other professionals who interviewed Brown. Perhaps he believed them to be better at detecting lies than he. Regardless, even if Dr. Brinkley denied the value of a personal interview, it does not mean that the jury’s assessment of his testimony would not have been affected by learning that he did not interview Brown. Moreover, the evidentiary hearing revealed that cross-examination would have enabled the defense to elicit from Dr. Brinkley the concession that he thinks clinical psychologists are “competent to make psychiatric diagnoses” and that he has worked with Dr. Maiuro in the past and considers him to be “a competent practitioner.” This concession would have mitigated the damage done by the State’s cross-examination of Dr. Maiuro in which the psychologist was forced to admit that he was not qualified to prescribe lithium and by the State’s closing argument in which the prosecutor commented that Dr. Maiuro was “out on a limb.” There is a reasonable probability that, had the jury heard that Dr. Brinkley never interviewed Brown, did not review the same records as did Dr. Maiuro, and believed that Dr. Maiuro was competent to render an opinion, at least one juror would have given far greater weight to the opinions of Dr. Maiuro with respect to the question whether Brown’s mental disorder 7636 BROWN v. UTTECHT and the lack of lithium should be considered to constitute a mitigating factor.