Opinion ID: 1710572
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: funds for mental health experts

Text: Appellant claims error on the part of the trial court in denying his request for funds to provide for expert testimony on his mental state. He maintains that his mental condition was crucially relevant to his criminal culpability and the punishment he faced. He cites Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 84 L.Ed.2d 53 (1985), for the proposition that due process requires that he be allowed access to expert witnesses. Ake says: A defendant's mental condition is not necessarily at issue in every criminal proceeding... and it is unlikely that psychiatric assistance ... would be of probable value in cases where it is not. The risk of error from denial of such assistance, as well as its probable value, is most predictably at its height when the defendant's mental condition is seriously in question. ... [W]hen a defendant demonstrates to the trial judge that his sanity at the time of the offense is to be a significant factor at trial, the State must, at a minimum assure access to a competent psychiatrist..... (Emphasis added.) 470 U.S. at 82-83, 105 S.Ct. at 1096. Appellant claims he met the Ake seriously-in-question standard by filing a notice of intent to raise diminished capacity and a notice of mitigating circumstances. However, these bare notices, without more, are insufficient to show the trial court that appellant's mental condition would, in fact, be a significant factor at trial. Any defendant can make a bald statement of diminished capacity or claim that he acted under extreme mental duress. The State is not required to provide expert psychiatric assistance based on unsupported allegations, however. To qualify under Ake , a defendant must allege facts, not state mere legal conclusions or theories, to show the trial court that his or her mental condition is relevant to the issues before the trial court. Appellant states that his pretrial motion seeking funds and the suggestions in support thereof demonstrate the relevancy of his mental condition. Appellant's motion states: Missouri law makes Reginald Clemons's mental condition relevant to criminal responsibility and sentencing in many significant ways: (a) competency at trial and sentencing; (b) specific intent to commit first degree murder; (c) legal insanity or diminished capacity; (d) competencies to waive his rights, including the right not to incriminate himself and to waive counsel; (e) mental health issues as they relate to mitigation of sentence. This survey of the ways in which a mental condition may be relevant in some criminal cases does not demonstrate any reason for the trial court to find that appellant's actual mental condition was, in fact, seriously at issue in this case. Appellant's motion does not assert a fact-based claim that he was legally insane at the time of the crime, or that he was incompetent to stand trial, or that he was incapable of forming the specific intent to commit the crime. The only facts appellant alleges in his motion and attached affidavits regarding his mental condition are that he suffers from learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and speculation that he might have a neurological defect. The mere allegation of any abnormal mental condition is not enough to cross the Ake threshold; not every mental abnormality is relevant to a defendant's mental state for the purposes of criminal culpability. In addition, mere speculation as to a mental defect, without alleging any basis to support the speculation, is insufficient to raise the issue under Ake . Appellant's allegations and speculations do not rise to the level of significance necessary to cross the Ake threshold; they do not put the defendant's mental state seriously in question or render it likely to be a significant factor at trial. Appellant also filed a motion requesting an order to allow a particular psychologist to examine him regarding diminished capacity and death penalty issues. He claims he needed such an investigation because there would be an issue at trial as to who was the leader and who were the followers, whether defendant understood the Miranda warnings, (and) whether defendant understood the consequences of his actions including the criminality of his acts. The motion fails, likewise, to allege any facts to suggest that these questions were seriously in issue or from which the court might infer a genuine possibility that appellant did not or could not understand the criminality of his acts. We repeat: A mere allegation that a defendant's mental capacity is at issue does not make it so. Facts supporting the allegation are necessary to show the seriousness of the allegation and its relevancy to the issues before the trial court. Appellant's case, therefore, is entirely different from those he cites in support of his claim. In Ake , the defendant's behavior was so bizarre that the trial judge sua sponte ordered a mental examination, which revealed the defendant to be a paranoid schizophrenic. In Starr v. Lockhart, 23 F.3d 1280 (8th Cir.1994), the defendant presented the court with mental health records demonstrating a diagnosis of mild to moderate retardation. In Kenley v. Armontrout, 937 F.2d 1298 (8th Cir.1991), records showed defendant's history of suicide attempts, various diagnoses of possible mental problems throughout his life, abnormal EEG's, and records of treatment dating back some 13 years before the crimes in question occurred. In each of these cases, the defendant offered a factual basis to demonstrate a significant concern about the defendant's mental condition as it related to the crime. Such a factual basis is wholly absent in this case. Claims of learning disabilities and ADHD are not mental conditions that, of themselves, are so consequential as to become a significant factor where the issue is appellant's mental condition as it relates to his criminal culpability. We conclude that appellant did not put his mental state seriously at issue or provide any factual support for a claim that it might reasonably become a significant factor at trial. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in failing to grant appellant's motion requesting funds for mental experts. Alternatively, appellant charges that the State made his mental state an issue, thus triggering his rights under Ake . Ake states that when the State has made the defendant's mental condition relevant to his criminal culpability and to the punishment he might suffer, the assistance of a psychiatrist may well be crucial to the defendant's ability to marshal his defense. 470 U.S. at 80, 105 S.Ct. at 1095. Appellant claims that the state made appellant's mental state an issue when it submitted the depravity of mind aggravator. A superficial glance at the jury instructions demonstrates that depravity of mind is not based upon a psychiatric evaluation of a defendant's mental state, but rather is evidenced by the horrible nature of the circumstances of the homicide. See, e.g., MAI-Cr3d 313.40 (Notes on Use 7). [5] The State need not put on psychiatric testimony to prove depravity of mind (and in fact, did not put on any such testimony in this case) and the defense has no need of psychiatric expert testimony to refute it. The use of the depravity of mind aggravator does not put the defendant's mental condition at issue. 2. In a related claim, appellant finds his counsel ineffective in the penalty phase for failing to call mental health experts to testify. Appellant contends that counsel's decision not to call these witnesses was not an informed, strategic decision because counsel failed adequately to investigate possible mitigating circumstances to present at penalty phase. Counsel's presentation of penalty phase evidence is a matter of professional judgment. Antwine v. State, 791 S.W.2d 403, 407 (Mo. banc 1990). No duty exists in counsel to present mitigating character evidence at penalty phase. Clemmons v. State, 785 S.W.2d 524, 528 (Mo. banc 1990). Defense counsel is under no obligation to present the defendant's background in mitigation in a death penalty case. Schneider v. State, 787 S.W.2d 718, 721 (Mo. banc 1990). Defense counsel hired Maryann Marxhors to investigate appellant's background to determine whether psychiatric evidence would avail defendant in either the guilt or penalty phase. Armed with appellant's school and medical records, counsel consulted with a psychiatrist in California to see whether he might help defendant's case. This psychiatrist indicated that he would be crucified on cross-examination, due to material in the records which suggested that appellant was aggressive. On the basis of this investigation, counsel chose not to put on any psychiatric evidence. Appellant insists that counsels' decision was not strategic because it was not well-informed. The record shows otherwise. Counsel did attempt to investigate as to whether any substantive claims existed relating to a mental defect or diminished capacity in appellant. Counsel ultimately determined that the adverse inferences from such evidence, as well as potential rebuttal evidence brought out in cross-examination by the prosecution, outweighed the potential good such evidence might have produced. This was an informed, strategic choice that is not subject to the judgment of hindsight. Cheek v. State, 459 S.W.2d 278, 281 (Mo.1970). Moreover, as we observed above, we have reviewed the testimony of appellant's experts at the Rule 29.15 hearing and found that the testimony was not such that it made it probable that the outcome of the penalty phase would have been different. Appellant's point is denied.