Opinion ID: 2585200
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Eliciting facts of 1978 brandishing incident of which defendant was acquitted by reason of insanity

Text: Defendant complains the jury considered, as an improper aggravating factor, evidence that in 1978 he assaulted a police officer with a firearm, when in fact, unknown to the jury, he had been found not guilty by reason of insanity of that offense. Defendant suggests the error violated the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and thus requires reversal. First, we note it was defendant who elicited the facts of the incident during his examination of Dr. Berg, the prosecution having neither charged nor argued the incident in its case in aggravation. Thus, as the Attorney General argues, defendant invited any error that occurred. ( People v. Memro (1995) 11 Cal.4th 786, 878, 47 Cal. Rptr.2d 219, 905 P.2d 1305.) In any event, we reject defendant's premise that the jury was not informed of the finding of insanity in the earlier case. In the course of his examination concerning the incident, defendant asked Dr. Berg: How did all this lead to my being found legally insane? Dr. Berg summarized for the jury the findings of the psychiatrists who had examined defendant at the time of the trial on the 1978 assault: Both of them diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. Both of them said you were delusional. That you had loose associations. That you were not able to connect your ideas properly, and that you had a long history of mental disturbance. Dr. Berg added that one of the psychiatrists had found defendant legally insane. Defendant further elicited from Dr. Berg that, as a result, he was committed to Atascadero State Hospital, where he spent four years before his release on a successful petition for restoration of sanity. Thus, although the jury was not informed in technical terms of the verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1978 case, it did learn defendant had been found legally insane and had spent four years in a mental hospital as a consequence. Moreover, the trial court instructed the jury that [i]n determining which penalty is to be imposed on Dennis Lawley, you should consider, take into account and be guided by all of the mitigating factors you deem to be applicable, including but not limited to any aspect of his mental condition. Any mental or psychiatric disability that you find is currently present in Mr. Lawley or you find was present at the time of the commission of the offenses charged in this case, may be considered by you as a circumstance in mitigation. [¶] Evidence of the existence of any such mental or psychiatric disability may never be considered by you as a circumstance in aggravation. In the circumstances, we find it not reasonably possible the jury improperly considered the 1978 brandishing incident in aggravation. ( People v. Brown (1988) 46 Cal.3d 432, 448, 250 Cal.Rptr. 604, 758 P.2d 1135.)