Opinion ID: 2585200
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Unreliability of judgment due to defendant's insanity

Text: Defendant urges reversal of the judgment as unreliable under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution due to his insanity at the time of trial and at the time of the incident involving the young child offered in aggravation. [25] We have previously addressed defendant's claims concerning his competency to stand trial ( ante, 115 Cal.Rptr.2d at pp. 634-645, 38 P.3d at pp. 478-487) and, because he fails to elaborate on the concept of insanity at the time of trial, we devote no further analysis to the latter point. We therefore focus on the contention that the judgment must be reversed because defendant was insane at the time of the aggravating incident. The test of legal insanity in California is the rule in M'Naghten's Case (1843) 10 Clark & Fin. 200, 210 [8 Eng. Rep. 718, 722], [26] as adopted by the electorate in June 1982 with the passage of Proposition 8. That measure added section 25, subdivision (b), which provides: In any criminal proceeding ... in which a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity is entered, this defense shall be found by the trier of fact only when the accused person proves by a preponderance of the evidence that he or she was incapable of knowing or understanding the nature and quality of his or her act and of distinguishing right from wrong at the time of the commission of the offense. Despite the use of the conjunctive and instead of M'Naghten's disjunctive or, this court has interpreted the statute as recognizing two distinct and independent bases on which a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity might be returned. ( People v. Skinner (1985) 39 Cal.3d 765, 769, 217 Cal.Rptr. 685, 704 P.2d 752; accord, People v. Kelly, supra, 1 Cal.4th at p. 533, 3 Cal.Rptr.2d 677, 822 P.2d 385.) With respect to the incident involving the young child introduced in the penalty phase, defendant argues the evidence sufficiently demonstrated his insanity so as to render his sentence unreliable. For this proposition, defendant relies on the evidence that he accused Michael Harris, the father of the three-year-old boy, of teaching his son to go around sucking guys' penises. We observe that defendant failed to object at trial to the admission of this evidence on the basis he now advances and thus has forfeited the claim. ( People v. Zapien (1993) 4 Cal.4th 929, 979-980, 17 Cal.Rptr.2d 122, 846 P.2d 704.) Even were we to address the claim, moreover, it lacks merit. While defendant's bizarre accusation does dovetail with the homophobic views he aired repeatedly during the trial and suggests the operation of a paranoid or delusional mind, it does not fairly reflect the whole incident. When initially confronted about why he had kicked the boy, defendant told Michael Harris he did not like children and Harris should keep his son out of defendant's yard or he would kick him again. Then, while defendant, Michael Harris, Danny Wisner and Sammy Wisner were discussing the incident, defendant suddenly flew into a rage and hit Danny Wisner in the eye. A sheriffs officer arrived and took defendant to county jail. A week later, Michael Harris and Danny Wisner were in Harris's backyard when defendant, from over the fence, pointed a revolver at them and warned: I'm going to get you guys for what you've done to me. I'm going to get your family. As the Attorney General observes, the evidence tended strongly to show that defendant acted out of anger and vengefulness rather than an insane delusion. Defendant fails to show that he was insane at the time of the incident and thus to cast doubt on the reliability of the judgment.