Court Opinion

ID: 9538056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:29:18.322932+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:57:25.239971
License: Public Domain

TATE, Justice
(concurring).
The uncontradicted medical and other testimony shows that the defendant had the intelligence and personality of a boy of eight to nine years of age. The only psychiatrist who testified in person felt that he could not intelligently assist counsel try the case, and that, as with most eight year olds, he had hazy concepts about the right and wrong of taking things that belonged to other people. The other two doctors, who testified by report, felt that he was mentally retarded but that he could assist in his defense competently.
It is difficult for me to believe that an eight-year old child, or a childlike older boy with a mind of an eight-year old, could in fact intelligently assist in his own defense. However, this court has consistently held otherwise, see e. g., State v. Chinn, 229 La. 984, 87 So.2d 315 (1956), absent mental distortions impairing rational understanding, State v. Augustine, 252 La. 983, 215 So.2d 634 (1968). Until this court or the legislature re-examines the question, T will concur.