Court Opinion

ID: 9710595
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:12:44.141415+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:58.254729
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion
Hunter, J.
This case presents a special plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The legal standard by which appellant’s plea must be judged is the alternative formulation of the Model Penal Code, Section 4.01, adopted by this Court in Hill v. State, (1969) 252 Ind. 601, 251 N.E.2d 429. Section 4.01 provides:
“(1) A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law.
“(2) As used in this Article, the terms ‘mental disease or defect’ do not include an abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise antisocial conduct.”
A legally defensible application of this standard requires the trier of fact to make at least four determinations in the accused’s favor before his plea may be upheld. The initial determination is whether the defendant, prior to the act for which he stands charged, was suffering from a mental disease or defect. In this determination the jury is negatively instructed that a mental disease or defect does not include “an abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise antisocial conduct.” If the trier of fact concludes that the defendant prior to the crime suffered a mental disease or defect, it must further determine whether the operation of the disease or defect on the mind of the accused substantially diminished his mental capacity. Next, the trier must determine whether the accused, at the time of the crime, still bears the scars of the disease or defect, i.e., whether his mental capacity remains substantially diminished. Finally, the trier must decide whether this mental debility rendered the accused unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct, or if *312he could appreciate its wrongfulness, nevertheless, he was unable to conform his actions to the requirements of the law.
The defense of insanity is premised upon the notion that criminal sanctions serve as no deterrent and should not be imposed upon one who is unable to conform his conduct so as to avoid the imposition of such sanctions. This premise did not always obtain; until the thirteenth century insane persons were routinely held accountable for their criminal acts, with their affliction being considered only as a basis for pardon. See Perkins, CRIMINAL LAW 850 (1969). Contrary to popular mythology, a defendant who is insane at the time the offense is committed and pleads insanity as his defense is more likely to go to jail than go free. Our law of insanity, which is based upon an arguably enlightened premise, operates much like the law of the thirteenth century, but without the candor of those earlier times. Since a defendant’s guilt or innocence turns upon his state of mind when the crime was committed, he is necessarily entitled to have a jury pass upon his mental condition. Thus, while a defendant may be insane for purposes of medical treatment, the question of whether the same condition renders him insane for purposes of relieving him of criminal responsibility is a question of fact to be decided solely by the trier of fact. Blake v. State, (1975) 262 Ind. 659, 323 N.E.2d 227. Expert testimony in the area of insanity — as with other questions of fact — is not entitled to special weight and competes on the same plane with the weakest of lay testimony. Riggs v. State, (1976) 264 Ind. 263, 342 N.E.2d 838; Moore v. State, (1973) 260 Ind. 154, 293 N.E.2d 28.
Initially, expert medical testimony was viewed with distrust because of the imperfect state of the art and the forces of anti-intellectualism which viewed such testimony an as affront to the common sense of the jurors:
“We will not attempt to discuss the different announced classifications of insanity — with them we have nothing to do. Their technical names and nice theoretical distinctions have *313long enough confused courts and cast contempt upon the verdict of juries. Insanity is a disease. The effect it has produced upon the faculties of the reason and will are all we are concerned with. It is no more the province of a court to instruct a jury as to the effect this disease will produce in a special subject, than as to the results of an attack of cholera or fever. The effect which has been produced is a question of fact, and to be proved in like manner.” Bradley v. State, (1869) 31 Ind. 492, 509.
Medical advances in the discovery and treatment of mental disease since 1869 merely affect the weight of the expert testimony and do not compel its acceptance by the jury. Appellant, if he is able, may well ponder the justice of a system which finds him guilty when the testimony of three psychiatrists and one psychologist was uniform in conclusion that he was unable to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. Perhaps he will find solace in knowing that the same system would not have precluded his use of lay testimony to rebut expert testimony had it not been in his favor. In any event, under the present law of insanity, appellant’s conviction must be affirmed, because there was some evidence from which the jury could find that he was able to conform his actions to the law, but declined to do so when he committed the crime.
The foregoing does not mean, however, that justice has triumphed in this case.
Note. — Reported at 342 N.E.2d 844.