Court Opinion

ID: 9477401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:23:00.9012+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:52.120333
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
In his chief claim for habeas corpus relief in this capital case, Leslie Lowenfield asserts that he is presently incompetent to be executed under the dictates of Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399, 106 S.Ct. 2595, 91 L.Ed.2d 335 (1986).
Lowenfield’s federal habeas corpus petition was filed with the district court in the early evening. The district court denied the petition by 7:15 p.m.; it was received by this writer at 8:00 p.m. The district court, incredibly, appears to have relied upon an extended private conversation with Lowenfield’s expert witness Marc L. Zimmerman, Ph.D., before the time Lowenfield filed his habeas petition in federal court. The court’s opinion recited “My extended conversation with Dr. Zimmerman has convinced me that petitioner has the capacity to understand the realities of the pending execution.”
In his application to this Court for a certificate of probable cause, Lowenfield represents that
the District Court, flouting the most elementary concepts of due process, rested its factual finding that Mr. Lowenfield is not incompetent to be executed under Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 [106 S.Ct. 2595, 91 L.Ed.2d 399] (1986), upon an “extended” private conversation it initiated with Mr. Lowenfield’s expert witness, although the expert’s sworn affidavit accompanied the habeas corpus petition. Consequently, the District Court’s ruling is based in part upon a hearing at which Mr. Lowenfield's rights to redirect or cross-examine witnesses, to be represented by counsel, or to be provided a record of proceedings, were all effectively nullified. Moreover, at the time the secret conversation was held, the District Court lacked any jurisdiction over the case because no petition had been filed there.
As Lowenfield points out, the district court gathered this “evidence” before acquiring jurisdiction over the case and without giving Lowenfield notice or an opportunity to respond. Moreover, it is clear from the district court's opinion that the court’s conversation with Dr. Zimmerman was crucial to the court’s resolution of the issue. Without the improper Zimmerman conversation, the entire record on the incompetence to be executed issue consists of the Zimmerman affidavit. Had the district court considered only that affidavit, it could have found that Lowenfield was incompetent, for Dr. Zimmerman there stated that Lowenfield is a paranoid schizophrenic and does not understand the death penalty that is to be imposed on him. The State presents no counter evidence. By basing its opinion on evidence outside the record, the district court failed to make any finding on the record. I cannot say, as a matter of law, that the Zimmerman affidavit* was insufficient to support a finding that Lowenfield met at least the threshold requirements for a hearing. Accordingly, I would grant a stay and remand for the district court to make a finding, based on record evidence, on whether Lowenfield should have a hearing on incompetence to be executed.
APPENDIX
AFFIDAVIT OF MARC L. ZIMMERMAN, Ph.D.
STATE OF LOUISIANA
PARISH OF EAST BATON ROUGE
MARC L. ZIMMERMAN, Ph.D., being first duly sworn, says as follows:
*1891. My name is Marc L. Zimmerman, Ph.D. I am currently a clinical psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I have been in private practice since 1980.
2. I received my training in clinical psychology at East Texas State University, from which I received my Ph.D. in psychology in 1977. I have been licensed to practice in Texas since 1978, and in Louisiana since 1979. I have been certified by the Council for the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, and I am a Diplomat of the American Academy of Behavioral Medicine. I am a member of the American Psychological Association and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
3. I have been a practicing psychologist since 1978, and have practiced in Louisiana since 1980. From 1977 to 1978, I was Director of the Angelina County (Texas) Mental Health Clinic. In 1978, I joined the Baton Rouge Mental Health Center as Chief Psychologist, in which position I remained until entering private practice in 1980.
4. I personally interviewed Leslie 0. Lowenfield on March 26, 1988 for approximately five hours, and administered to him a standardized psychological test known as the “Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (‘MMPI’),” as well as an intelligence test and a reading ability test.
5. On the basis of the interview and the MMPI, I have reached a preliminary conclusion, subject to further psychological testing, that it is highly probable that Mr. Lowenfield is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
6. A study has found that 85% of persons who obtain the same profile as Mr. Lowenfield on the MMPI are diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenics. Marks, P.A., & Seeman, W. The Actuarial Description of Abnormal Personality. Baltimore: William and Wilkins, 1963.
7. The clinical profile revealed by the MMPI indicates that Mr. Lowenfield is likely to be afflicted with delusions that he is being unjustly persecuted. He is likely to react to environmental stimuli, including social contacts with other people, with extreme and inappropriate hostility and suspicion. He may have difficulty in concentrating his thoughts, and will typically respond even to minor frustrations with excessive emotion. He may also suffer from hallucinations.
8. As a paranoid schizophrenic, Mr. Lowenfield’s ability to distinguish right from wrong with respect to the conduct in question would have been impaired.
9. His paranoid schizophrenia may have caused Mr. Lowenfield to irrationally resist attempts to evaluate his mental status through the use of objective psychological tests.
10. As a paranoid schizophrenic, Mr. Lowenfield’s ability to knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently waive his right to present evidence of his insanity at the guilt and sentencing stages of his trial, or in subsequent proceedings for collateral relief, would have been impaired.
11. As a paranoid schizophrenic, Mr. Lowenfield’s ability to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his defense would have been impaired.
12. Mr. Lowenfield’s paranoid schizophrenia would constitute a pertinent mitigating circumstance under La.Code Crim. Proc. art. 905.5, such that a lay jury would be assisted by the testimony of a psychological witness in deciding whether or not to impose the death sentence.
13. As a paranoid schizophrenic, Mr. Lowenfield’s capacity to understand the death penalty would be impaired. Indeed, my clinical interview with Mr. Lowenfield indicated that he is currently unable to understand the death penalty.
14. For these reasons, it is essential that further evaluation be done to ascertain Mr. Lowenfield’s mental status. This evaluation would probably take at least ten hours of psychological testing and clinical interviews, spread over several visits. Mr. Lowenfield’s medical/psychiatric history must be obtained. Also, “objective” tests, such as the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire and the Million Multi-Axial Inventory *190should be administered. Such tests would permit comparison of Mr. Lowenfield's responses to standard questions with those given by persons diagnosed with schizophrenia, in order to determine with greater certainty the origin of Mr. Lowenfield's mental illness. A full evaluation will also require the use of “projective” tests, such as the Rohrschach and Thematic Apperception Tests, in which Mr. Lowenfield would be presented with ambiguous visual images and asked what he sees in them in order to learn more about his mental processes and emotions.
15. Because certain types of brain lesions or trauma can produce symptoms similar to those produced by paranoid schizophrenia, tests of psycho-organicity should also be administered, such as the Bender Gestalt and the Benton Visual Retention Tests, possibly supplemented by a Positive Emission Tomography Scan.
FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NOT.
/s/Marc L. Zimmerman, Ph.D. Marc L. Zimmerman, Ph.D.

 See attached appendix setting forth the Zimmerman affidavit in its entirety.