Court Opinion

ID: 9469094
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:31:57.833731+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:13.070855
License: Public Domain

BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Circuit Judge,
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority that defendant Campbell’s conviction should be affirmed. *822Accordingly, I concur in that portion of the opinion. However, I respectfully disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the District Court correctly denied defendant Fultz “an opportunity to seek to prove the ‘mental defect’ defense.” I feel compelled to set forth my reasons.
. As an initial matter, I agree with Chief Judge Edwards’ refusal to approve the District Judge’s order striking Fultz’s mental defect defense as punishment for his refusal to submit to a court-ordered psychiatric examination. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12.2(b) prescribes the proper method for raising the issue of a mental disease or defect. The Rule requires a defendant to notify the government before trial if he intends to introduce expert testimony relating to his mental condition. Rule 12.2(c) provides that, in an appropriate case, the court may order the defendant to submit to a psychiatric examination. Rule 12.2(d) establishes the sole sanction for a defendant’s failure either to give timely notice or to submit to a court-ordered examination: “the court may exclude the testimony of any expert witness offered by the defendant on the issue of his mental state.” As I read it, the purpose of Rule 12.2(b), (c), and (d) is two-fold. First, the Rule was designed to prevent the delay occasioned by “surprise” mental defect expert testimony. The Advisory Committee’s notes reveal that the Rule’s drafters intended to provide the government time to prepare to meet the issue and to prevent the need for a mid-trial continuance. Second, the Rule attempts to ensure that the government will have a similar arsenal of psychiatric or other expert testimony to meet its burden of proving sanity or mental capacity beyond a reasonable doubt. It would be anomalous if a defendant were permitted to offer psychiatric testimony on his own behalf, and then to preclude the government from offering contradictory testimony by refusing a court-ordered psychiatric examination. The Rule was designed to prevent this possibility.
I feel that the District Court’s order striking Fultz’s mental defect defense exceeds the authority conferred by the Rule’s language, and fails to further the Rule’s purposes. Fultz complied with the notice provision, specifically informing the government that he would not call experts on his behalf. The government persuaded the District Court to strike the defense entirely after Fultz refused to be examined, claiming that it would face an impossible burden if it were forced to rebut Fultz’s defense with lay witnesses. The government’s claim is specious. Fultz has spent eighteen years of his life in custody. The government could have produced countless lay witnesses — prison guards and administrators or fellow inmates — to testify about Fultz’s mental state. In fact, Fultz had just escaped from a federal institution a few weeks before, he robbed the bank.1 In my view, administrative difficulty is a weak reed with which to support exclusion of an entire theory of defense.
Neither the District Court nor the government can point to any authority supporting its broad reading of the Rule. I have found only one such case. In United States v. Leonard, 609 F.2d 1163, 1165 n. 3 (5th Cir. 1980), the Fifth Circuit commented in a footnote that a defendant could “be barred from raising the issue of insanity as a defense if he did not submit to an examination by a court-designated psychiatrist.” I find this statement unpersuasive for several reasons. First, it is merely dictum, and in no way binds this or any other court. Second, the Leonard footnote incorrectly relies on Smith v. Estelle, 602 F.2d 694 (5th Cir. 1979), aff’d, 451 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 1866, 68 L.Ed.2d 359 (1981), as direct authority for the proposition. Smith was a habeas corpus case concerned solely with the question whether the state could use evidence from a compelled psychiatric examination to show a defendant’s propensity to commit violent acts in the future. The Fifth Circuit in Smith expressly avoided the narrow question whether a defendant who does not introduce psychiatric evidence at *823the sentencing phase of a capital trial, must submit to an examination by a doctor nominated by the state. Id. at 705 n.15. The court stated that: “we leave open the possibility that a defendant who wishes to use psychiatric evidence in his own behalf can be precluded from using it unless he is willing to be examined by a psychiatrist nominated by the state.” Id. at 705. Smith simply does not support the Leonard footnote’s assertion that a court may strike a mental defect or insanity defense if a defendant fails to allow a government psychiatric examination.
Third, Leonard’s interpretation of Rule 12.2(b) is unique. The weight of authority suggests that the only sanction permissible under 12.2(b) and (c) for failing to give notice or refusing to be examined, is the exclusion of a defendant’s expert witnesses. E.g., United States v. Olson, 576 F.2d 1267 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 896, 99 S.Ct. 256, 58 L.Ed.2d 242 (1978); United States v. Staggs, 553 F.2d 1073 (7th Cir. 1977). See also United States v. Handy, 454 F.2d 885 (9th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 846, 93 S.Ct. 49, 34 L.Ed.2d 86 (1972) (exclusionary rule would apply to defendant’s refusal to submit to compulsory psychiatric examination pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4244.)2 Of course, the Rule’s sanction is permissive and need not be imposed. One court has suggested that the exclusionary penalty should not be applied to indigent or pro se defendants. United States v. Smith, 437 F.2d 538 (6th Cir. 1970) (by implication). At least one court has labeled exclusion of expert defense testimony a “drastic sanction” which should be applied sparingly. United States v. Staggs, 553 F.2d at 1077.
It is clear that the Rule is limited, by its terms and as applied by the courts. Beyond the fact that the Rule’s remedy is narrowly drawn, fairness requires that its scope not be expanded beyond its plain meaning. In my view, the District Court’s order excluding Fultz’s entire defense theory offends not only the terms of Rule 12.2(d), but due process as well. I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that Fultz was treated fairly. In my view, Fultz was denied his constitutional right to raise an arguably valid defense, and to present to the jury the issue of his mental state. I therefore dissent for the following reasons.
First, I cannot join the majority’s assertion that Fultz’s mental defect defense has no validity in law. The majority assumes, without any factual support, that Fultz is merely “antisocial”, and not mentally disturbed. Thus, according to the majority, Fultz was never entitled to rely on a mental defect defense. However, this court has never adopted the following definition of mental disease propounded by the ALI Model Penal Code: “the terms ‘mental disease or defect’ do not include any abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise antisocial conduct.” In United States v. Gay, 522 F.2d 429 (6th Cir. 1975), this court held that the question whether an antisocial or psychopathic personality labors under a mental disease or defect, should not be decided as a matter of law, either affirmatively or negatively. Rather, the question should be submitted to the jury. In Gay, we expressly approved an instruction charging the jury that an antisocial personality is a condition “which may or *824may not be included within the definition of mental disease or defect.” Id. at 433. Judge Lively, writing for a unanimous panel, stated that:
In [United States v. Smith, 404 F.2d 720 (6th Cir. 1968) ], we framed the questions to be submitted to juries required to determine the issue of legal sanity in criminal cases. The District Judge in the present case submitted the required questions, the first of which was whether Steven Gay was suffering from a mental illness at the time of the commission of the robbery. Though the medical witnesses for the prosecution and the defense agreed that appellant is a psychopathic personality, they disagreed sharply on whether or not he was suffering from a mental illness or defect. It was properly left to the jury to decide which testimony to accept and, in the event of a finding that a mental illness or defect did exist, to go on to determine whether or not it so affected his conduct as to relieve him of legal responsibility for his criminal acts.
Id. (footnote omitted). I see no reason to depart from this court’s holding in Gay. In effect, the majority has adopted the Model Code’s limiting definition of mental disease, and has applied it retroactively to Fultz.
Furthermore,' it is clear that the District Court did not assess independently the merits or the strength of Fultz’s mental defect defense. The defense was stricken as punishment for Fultz’s refusal to be examined. The District Court specifically stated that if the defendants allowed themselves to be examined, “they may rely on their defense.” There is simply no support in Fultz’s record for the majority’s assumption that Fultz could not have raised a mental disease or defect issue for the jury.
Second, even if Fultz was not technically entitled to rely on a defense3 of mental disease, he was, nevertheless, entitled to introduce evidence relevant to his mental state at the time of the crime. Fultz was charged with armed robbery of a federally insured bank in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113(a) and (d). In this Circuit, armed bank robbery under this statute is a specific intent crime. Hamilton v. United States, 475 F.2d 512 (6th Cir. 1973). The Fifth and Second Circuits also require proof of specific intent to support convictions under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113(a) and (d). Caples v. United States, 391 F.2d 1018 (5th Cir. 1968); United States v. Howard, 506 F.2d 1131 (2nd Cir. 1974).
Several other circuits have construed sections 2113(a) and (d) as general intent crimes: United States v. Brown, 547 F.2d 36 (3rd Cir. 1976), cert. denied 431 U.S. 905, 97 S.Ct. 1698, 52 L.Ed.2d 389 (1977); United States v. Johnston, 543 F.2d 55 (8th Cir. 1976); United States v. Hartfield, 513 F.2d 254 (9th Cir. 1975); United States v. De Leo, 422 F.2d 487 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 1037, 90 S.Ct. 1355, 25 L.Ed.2d 648 (1970). But see United States v. Lilly, 512 F.2d 1259 (9th Cir. 1975). These courts have consistently refused to allow juries to consider evidence of voluntary drug and alcohol intoxication, or mental state generally, to demonstrate a defendant’s incapacity to form specific intent. This may well be the better rule, because taking by force and violence [§ 2113(a)] is analogous to common law robbery. Both sections (a) and *825(d) describe acts which, “when performed, are so unambiguously dangerous to others that the requisite mental element is necessarily implicit in the description.” United States v. Brown, 547 F.2d at 39. Nevertheless, this rule is not the law of this Circuit. We are bound to follow Hamilton, in which this court specifically approved an instruction asking a jury to decide whether, by reason of intoxication at the time of the crime, a defendant was able to form the specific intent to commit armed bank robbery under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113(a) and (d).
The record reveals that the Trial Judge treated the offenses as specific intent crimes. Although the indictment returned against Fultz did not specifically charge him with willfully and knowingly robbing the bank, the District Court instructed the jury that one of the “ingredients” of the crimes charged was willfulness. Fultz was also charged with and convicted of the specific intent crime of aiding and abetting the commission of a crime. In his charge to the jury, the District Judge defined “willfully” as “something done voluntarily and intentionally and with specific intent to do something the law forbids.”
It is indisputable that Fultz’s state of mind at the time of the robberies was at issue during his trial. Any character evidence or testimony bearing on Fultz’s state of mind would have been relevant under Federal Rules of Evidence 402 and 404(a),4 and therefore presumptively admissible. See United States v. Staggs, supra. In my view, it was error to prevent Fultz from presenting relevant, exculpatory evidence bearing on an essential element of the crimes of which he stood accused.
Clearly the trial judge would have been justified in refusing to instruct the jury if Fultz failed to present sufficient evidence to call into question his mental capacity at the time of the robberies. This is precisely the course the trial judge took in Campbell’s case. Due process required the District Judge to permit Fultz to attempt to show that he lacked specific intent. The following language from Smith v. United States, 353 F.2d 838, 842 (D.C.Cir. 1965), cert. denied, 384 U.S. 974, 86 S.Ct. 1867, 16 L.Ed.2d 684 (1966), aptly summarizes my point:
On this record, it is unlikely that any jury would have a reasonable doubt regarding appellant Smith’s responsibility for the crime. This, however, is beside the point. It has been the consistent teaching of our past cases that whenever “some evidence” of mental disease or defect is presented, the question of responsibility must be answered by the jury.
Similarly, in United States v. Garner, 529 F.2d 962 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 922, 96 S.Ct. 2630, 49 L.Ed.2d 376 (1976), and Garner v. United States, 429 U.S. 850, 97 S.Ct. 138, 50 L.Ed.2d 124 (1976), this court held that a trial judge who refused to charge the jury adequately on a defendant’s theory of the case, committed reversible error. See also United States v. McRary, 616 F.2d 181 (5th Cir. 1980). Applying both principles to those circumstances, it is clear that Fultz’s conviction cannot stand. I would reverse and remand for a new trial.

. I note that Fultz’s lengthy confinement is not necessary for this conclusion. The government has subpoena power and broad investigative power at its disposal.

. 18 U.S.C. § 4244 empowers a court to order a psychiatric examination to determine a defendant’s competency to stand trial. The Third Circuit in United States v. Alvarez, 519 F.2d 1036 (3rd Cir. 1975) strongly hinted that the government routinely abuses section 4244 powers in an effort to gain evidence with which to prove sanity beyond a reasonable doubt:
We are advised that United States attorneys have frequently sought § 4244 examinations specifically for the purpose of obtaining evidence on the issue of criminal responsibility in order to rebut anticipated insanity defenses, and that this practice is in accordance with the policy of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. This use of § 4244 seems to us entirely inconsistent with its limited purpose. We construe the statute to mean what it appears to say. A defendant may be compelled to submit to a psychiatric examination for the purpose of determining his competency to stand trial, and the psychiatrist can testify at a hearing for that purpose. But that psychiatrist cannot, if the defendant is found to be competent, testify against him at the trial about statements he made in the course of the compelled examination.

. As Fultz timely notified the government, he intended to rely solely on a defense of mental defect, after his duress defense was stricken. The Rule’s language speaks of insanity as a “defense”, and mental defect as a negation of the “mental element required for the offense charged.” This distinction may foster confusion, raising the question whether mental defect is technically a defense. In my view, this is a distinction without a difference. The Rule does not attempt to define the substantive law of insanity, which differs from circuit to circuit. As the Advisory Committee Notes point out, the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws has recommended the following definition of an insanity or mental condition defense, which is identical to the Model Penal Code’s definition of insanity: “In any prosecution for any offense lack of criminal responsibility by reason of mental disease or defect is a defense.” [Study Draft of a New Federal Criminal Code § 503 at 36-37.] The Notes state further that subdivision (a) should be changed to read: “defense of lack of criminal responsibility by reason of mental disease or defect”, replacing “defense of insanity.” This circuit has specifically adopted the Model Penal Code test for insanity. United States v. Smith, 404 F.2d at 727. Thus, Fultz properly raised a defense based on mental defect.

. Rule 404(a) provides that: “Evidence of a person’s character or a trait of his character is not admissible for the purpose of proving that he acted in conformity therewith on a particular occasion, except .. . [e]vidence of a pertinent trait of his character offered by an accused.