Court Opinion

ID: 9729926
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:52:52.056769+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:02.311153
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
dissenting.
Appellant, whose entire defense was that he was insane at the time of the crime, was not permitted to introduce into evidence a statement which tended to prove his insanity. This statement, made to a psychologist who was treating appellant, revealed appellant’s belief that his wife and friends had been under the control of the victim. The majority holds that the trial court did not err in excluding this evidence as too remote. I cannot agree.1
Statements made by the accused may reveal his mental condition. J. McCormick, Evidence § 249, at 593 (2d ed. 1972). Statements made by the accused before or after *21the crime are relevant to the issue of insanity at the time of the crime. Id. at 592-93, 2 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 233 (3d ed. 1940). Professor Wigmore reasons:
“A condition of mental disease is always a more or less continuous one, either in latent tendency or in manifest operation. It is therefore proper, in order to ascertain the fact of its existence at a certain time, to consider its existence at a prior or subsequent time.”
2 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 233, at 25 (3d ed. 1940).
The trial court may exclude such evidence if it is too remote to the issue whether the accused was insane at the time of the crime. 2 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 233 (3d ed. 1940). In the exercise of this discretion, however, the court must be guided by the principle that broad latitude must be given to allow presentation of evidence which may have a bearing on the sanity of the accused. As Judge (now Mr. Justice) Blackmun stated in Pope v. United States, 372 F.2d 710, 736 (8th Cir. 1967): “[W]e expect a trial judge, in a case involving criminal responsibility, to be free in his admission of all possibly relevant evidence . . ..” Accord, United States v. Hartfield, 513 F.2d 254 (9th Cir. 1975) ; United States v. Brawner, 153 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 471 F.2d 969 (1972). This principle must be carefully observed when the evidence is offered by the accused, as the accused must not be deprived of the right to present relevant evidence. See generally Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973); Commonwealth v. Boyle, 470 Pa. 343, 368 A.2d 661 (1977).
While being treated for his mental condition, appellant told his psychologist that he believed the victim was controlling his wife and friends. From this statement, a clear inference arises that this was appellant’s belief at the time of the crime. I believe that the trial court erred in excluding this statement, made eighteen months after the killing, as too remote. Cf. Robinson v. United States, 144 F.2d 392 (6th Cir. 1944), aff’d, 324 U.S. 282, *2265 S.Ct. 666, 89 L.Ed. 944 (1945) (letter written by the accused nearly two years after crime was properly admitted when sanity was at issue.) Remoteness is not simply a question of how long after the crime the statement was made. Rather, remoteness involves a determination whether various factors make the probative value of the evidence to the issue of the accused’s insanity at the time of the crime unduly speculative. Not only the lapse of time between the crime and the statement must be considered, but also the nature of the evidence offered and the possible effect of intervening events. Here, the excluded statement dealt with appellant’s beliefs concerning the circumstances existing at the time of the crime, and his reasons for committing the crime. This evidence bears a close relation to appellant’s state of mind when he killed the victim, and there is little reason to fear that appellant’s beliefs reflect events which occurred after the killing, rather than his state of mind at the time of the killing.2 It was an abuse of discretion for the court to keep this evidence from the jury.
Moreover, appellant’s statement was offered as part of the testimony of his psychologist. The psychologist’s ability to explain the relevance of the statement to the issue of appellant’s insanity at the time of the crime removes any danger that the relation between the evidence offered and the issue of insanity was too remote or speculative.
It was particularly important to appellant that this evidence be admitted at trial, as appellant exercised his privilege against self-incrimination and thus did not testi*23fy at trial as to his state of mind at the time of the killing. Because of the close relation appellant’s belief that the victim was controlling his wife bears on his state of mind when he killed the victim, the admission of other evidence of insanity does not render this evidence cumulative.
Nor can I conclude that, because the psychologist who relied on appellant’s statement was allowed to testify as to appellant’s sanity, it was harmless error to exclude this statement. That we allow the jury to reject the conclusions of this expert makes plain the need to have him explain the basis of his opinion :
“The chief value of an expert’s testimony in this field . . . rests upon the material from which his opinion is fashioned and the reasoning by which he progresses from his material to his conclusion; ... it does not lie in his mere expression of conclusion.”
Carter v. United States, 102 U.S.App.D.C. 227, 252 F.2d 608, 617 (1957); see United States v. Smith, 507 F.2d 710 (4th Cir. 1974). Precisely because appellant’s statement formed the basis for the opinion of this expert, it was important that this statement be admitted into evidence. Unless the psychologist was allowed to testify about this evidence, and explain why it indicated that appellant was insane, appellant had little hope of persuading the jury to adopt the conclusions of this expert.
For these reasons, I cannot agree with the majority that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding evidence relevant to the issue of insanity, appellant’s only defense. I dissent and would grant appellant a new trial.

. Several other statements made by the appellant were also excluded as too remote. These included statements concerning appellant’s preoccupation that others were trying to kill him, and two letters sent by appellant to a psychiatrist. Because I believe it was reversible error to exclude appellant’s statement that the victim was controlling his wife and friends, it is unnecessary to decide whether the exclusion of any of these statements also requires that a new trial be granted.

. Indeed, if appellant had explicitly stated that this was his belief at the time of the crime, there would be no remoteness problem at all. Instead, the question would be whether this statement, dealing with appellant’s past state of mind, was admissible under an exception to the hearsay rule. See generally Meany v. United States, 112 F.2d 538 (2d Cir. 1941) (per Hand, J.) (hearsay exception for statements made to treating physician includes statements relating to past condition); Fed.R.Evid. 803(4); J. McCormick, Evidence § 292 (2d ed. 1972).