Court Opinion

ID: 9541298
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:24:14.626627+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:02:42.976554
License: Public Domain

Utter, J.
(dissenting)—I concur in the result reached by the dissent. The defendant produced sufficient evidence to at least raise a jury question. There was evidence that his mental condition at the time of the alleged offense was not the sole result of intoxication but was caused by an underlying mental illness triggered by alcohol consumption. There was also evidence produced that the defendant was not aware of the atypical effect which alcohol would have on him. Underlying insanity triggered by alcohol consumption is a defense if the defendant was unaware that alcohol would trigger his mental condition and in the present case the jury should have been so instructed.
The crucial distinction which must be made is between voluntary and involuntary action. The majority correctly notes that an inability to perceive the nature and quality of one's acts or to tell right from wrong does not constitute legal insanity if brought on by voluntary intoxication or some other voluntary act. RCW 9A.16.090; RCW 10.77-.010(7). Such inability does constitute legal insanity, however, if brought on by an involuntary act. See State v. Mriglot, 88 Wn.2d 573, 575, 564 P.2d 784 (1977) (involun*627tary intoxication may support insanity defense).
The central reason for prohibiting the assertion of mental conditions brought on by voluntary intoxication as a complete defense is that one who consumes alcohol or drugs should realize the possibility of potentially dangerous effects. Hasse, Drug Intoxication and Criminal Responsibility: Old Dilemmas and a New Proposal, 16 Santa Clara L. Rev. 249, 259 (1976). Thus, one whose consumption is not voluntary should not be denied the right to claim the defense of insanity. State v. Mriglot, supra at 575. Similarly, one whose consumption of alcohol or drugs is voluntary but who is unaware of some atypical effect which such consumption may have upon him or her should be permitted to claim the defense. See, e.g., People v. Murray, 247 Cal. App. 2d 730, 732, 56 Cal. Rptr. 21 (1967) (dictum) (intoxication involuntary if defendant was unaware of combined effects of drugs and alcohol); Comment, Pathological Intoxication and the Voluntarily Intoxicated Criminal Offender, 1969 Utah L. Rev. 419, 426-28 (complete defense should be allowed for person having "grossly excessive" reaction of which he or she was previously unaware). In particular, one whose underlying insanity is triggered by consumption of alcohol or drugs and who is previously unaware of the triggering effect may claim that he or she is legally insane.
In the instant case, instructions to this effect should have been given, i.e., the standard legal insanity instruction accompanied by an instruction that the defense must be rejected if the defendant knew or should have known of the atypical effect alcohol or drugs might have upon him. Both the portions of the record cited by the majority and those cited by Justice Dore in his dissent demonstrate that there was sufficient evidence from which the jury might have concluded: (1) that the defendant did not understand the nature and quality of his acts; and (2) that this was caused by an underlying mental illness triggered by intoxication.3 *628The only remaining question, not addressed by either the majority or Justice Dore, is whether there was sufficient evidence from which the jury might conclude that the defendant was previously unaware of such an interaction. I believe that such evidence, albeit weak, did exist and the jury should have been allowed to consider and then either accept or reject it. While there was some testimony by the defendant's mother about previous extreme reactions to alcohol and drugs and some evidence that previous alcohol and drug use had necessitated institutionalization, the defendant himself testified as follows:
Q Has it ever been your intention to hurt anyone during any seizure or during a period of extreme intoxication?
A Not that I know of, no.
Q Does the consumption of alcohol have any unusual effect upon you, or do you know?
A I don't really know other than what I have been told. I get real sick. I do get real sick, like I was sick the first couple days up in jail.
Q Have you ever taken drugs along with alcohol?
A Yes
Q What kind?
A Well, all different types. I have smoked hash with alcohol; I have smoked pot with alcohol; I have taken amphetamines with alcohol; speed with alcohol; I have taken downers with alcohol.
Q How does that seem to affect the normal intoxication that you would get from taking alcohol?
A It speedens it up.
(Italics mine.) Report of Proceedings, at 337-38.
The jury should have been instructed on the insanity defense with appropriate limiting instructions. Since it was not, the case should be remanded for a new trial.
Dore, J., concurs with Utter, J.

 Taken in context, the testimony of Dr. Pidgeon which the majority quotes at *628page 625 is equivocal. He testified that the defendant has an underlying condition called "chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia" which could be made worse by "speed" or alcohol. The doctor also testified that his most recent exposure to alcohol and drugs produced a "toxic psychosis" which was the immediate cause of legal insanity. Whether he considered this "toxic psychosis" a worsening of the defendant's schizophrenia, the doctor did not make clear.