Opinion ID: 2486429
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Spencer [1] Hearing

Text: At the October 22, 2008, Spencer hearing, both McCRAY and the State were given an opportunity to present additional evidence. The State presented the victim impact testimony of several individuals: Antha and Traci Whitehead, the daughter and wife, respectively, of John Whitehead; Mary Carol Allen, the mother of John Whitehead; Tonda Roselund, the sister of John Whitehead; Maxx Whitehead, the six-year-old son of John Whitehead; April Perrotta, the daughter of Phillip Perrotta; and Adeline Perri, the sister of Phillip Perrotta. Defense counsel introduced into evidence four expert reports for the purpose of establishing mitigation. The first report, a ten-page evaluation by mitigation specialist Shreya Mandel, recounted McCRAY's life history, childhood and adolescent development, and the debilitating family and social factors which shaped his life's course. Mandel's evaluation stated that additional clinical evidence suggested that McCRAY was not accurately diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. The second and third reports the trial court received were the same reports the court had accepted to determine McCRAY's competency at the third and final competency hearing in August 2008. These reports included Dr. Krop's August 15, 2008, psychological evaluation and Drs. Steven Miller and Wade Myers' August 18, 2008, psychological evaluation, both of which opined that McCRAY was not competent to stand trial. The final report defense counsel submitted was a later report authored by Drs. Miller and Myers to advise the court as to mitigating circumstances. That report indicated that McCRAY's behavior during the guilt and penalty phases of his trial strengthened the opinion that McCRAY was not feigning symptoms of mental illness. To conclude, the report expressed that McCRAY has apparently been suffering from a Psychotic Disorder (not otherwise specified). His guardedness and lack of willingness to participate in evaluations has made it challenging to assess this. However, we have rich data ... that suggests that his guardedness is not feigned and consistent with the `prodromal' phase of Schizophrenia (prodromal referring to the early constellation of symptoms that herald the later onset of a disease). Accordingly, it was the doctors' view that there [was] a reasonable likelihood that Mr. McCRAY was experiencing extreme mental or emotional disturbance at and around the time of the offense, and that his capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired.