Court Opinion

ID: 9551641
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:56:40.026313+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:19.227746
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I dissent. This ease involves substantially the same legal problems as Peoples. Goedecke (1967) ante, p. 850 [56 Cal.Rptr. 625, 423 P.2d 777, and I therefore reach the same conclusion as my dissent in Goedecke, ante, p. 862.
Unlike People v. Wolff (1964) 61 Cal.2d 795 [40 Cal.Rptr. 271, 394 P.2d 959], in which the mental condition of the defendant was indisputably shown, here there was a sharp conflict in the expert testimony. In the guilt phase (as distinguished from the sanity and penalty phases) three psychiatrists strongly supported defendant’s theory of diminished capacity; on the other hand, Dr. Rapaport and Dr. Pesehau, for the prosecution, found defendant able to form the intent required for first degree murder.
The following conclusions appear in Dr. Rapaport’s testimony: defendant “had mental capacity to premeditate and deliberate prior to the actual killings”; he was “aware of the nature and consequences of what he planned to do”; he was “able to reason and to deliberate and to form a conclusion”; his mind was not ‘ ‘ clouded in the sense that it was distorted, or that things were blotted out which should not have been blotted out”; his “judgment was not clouded to the extent that it interfered with his ability to form a conclusion or a judgment”; in fact, “he did deliberate”; “I don’t think he had an irresistible impulse”; he was “not mentally ill”; “I found his personality not to be disintegrated”; “he still retained his personality”; “his feelings were perhaps a little more colored by emotion than the average .... But not to the extent of mental illness”; “He realized the wrongfulness of what he was doing, according to the way society looks at it, according to the way laws are written”; “He recognized the enormity of the deed.”
The following quotations are from the testimony of Dr. Pesehau: defendant “had deliberated what he was going to do to a great extent, trying to decide whether it was the best thing according to his rights to do with his children”; “the alcohol he had consumed the night before had clouded his judgment *885somewhat, but not to the extent to interfere with his ability to premeditate”; the alcohol prevented his ability from being “top-notch quality, but it still would be normal carrying on”; “He did not have enough depression, however, to interfere with his ability to function”; “he had thoroughly considered what he had to do and what was necessary for the welfare of his children”; he had the “ability to meaningfully reflect on everything he did”; his impairment was “not to the point of making it impossible for him to decide”; his alcoholic toxicity “would not interfere with [his functioning] appreciably”; “Mr. Nicolaus is suffering from emotional problems. They are emotional problems at the neurotic level and do not interfere with his ability to function, but they do interfere with his ability to adjust”; he had a recognition and a realization of the enormity of the evil of the act that he contemplated doing in connection with his children; “He had already considered the quality pro and con for a long time before, and so he then was able to carry out what he had carefully thought out and what he had designed for himself to do. He then did that and later became depressed and remorseful over what he had done”; “He was capable of thinking about it and changing his opinion up until the point where he pulled the trigger.”
In weighing the divergent conclusions of the five experts, the jury apparently adopted the premises of Doctors Rapaport and Peschau. The foregoing excerpts from their testimony indicate adequate evidentiary support for the verdict. While this, like Goedeche, is a bizarre tragedy, that circumstance alone does not justify an appellate court substituting its view of the evidence for that of the trier of fact. (People v. Hillery (1965) 62 Cal.2d 692, 702-703 [44 Cal.Rptr. 30, 401 P.2d 382]; People v. Robillard (1960) 55 Cal.2d 88, 93 [10 Cal.Rptr. 167, 358 P.2d 295, 83 A.L.R.2d 1086].) As said by Justice Stewart in Berenyi v. Immigration Service (1967) 385 U.S. 630 [17 L.Ed.2d 656, 87 S.Ct. 666], an appellate tribunal “possesses no empirical expertise to set against the careful and reasonable conclusions of lower courts on purely factual issues.”
I would affirm the judgment.
McComb, J., concurred.
*886MEMORANDUM CASE