Court Opinion

ID: 9453343
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:10:34.780557+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:37.125389
License: Public Domain

J. SKELLY WRIGHT, Circuit Judge, with whom BAZELON, Chief Judge,
concurs, dissenting and concurring in part.
I
Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375, 86 S.Ct. 836, 15 L.Ed.2d 815 (1966), teaches that where there is substantial evidence indicating that an accused may be incompetent to stand trial, due process requires that the trial court order a hearing to determine his competence. The majority opinion, by watering down this constitutional right and subjecting it to “the trial court’s discretion,” finds that the evidence in this case did not require a hearing on competence.1 I respectfully disagree.
*956The record shows that Green had a long history of mental illness. In April 1961 he was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a jury in the District of Columbia. In that case the Government doctors testified that Green was suffering from schizophrenia with paranoid tendencies. He was committed to St. Elizabeths, from which he escaped and committed the crime for which he now stands convicted.
After being returned to St. Elizabeths, Green was found still to be suffering from schizophrenia (in remission), a not surprising diagnosis since the doctors had not authorized his discharge from the hospital. Several weeks before the trial of this case the hospital reported its boiler plate findings on Green to the District Court, adding its further opinion, without explication, that he was competent to stand trial. No objection was made to the hospital report, no ruling was made by the court on Green’s competence to stand trial, and that issue apparently dropped from the case.2
The trial was largely taken up with medical evidence focusing, not on competence at the time of trial, but on insanity at the time the act was committed. The evidence as to commission of the act itself was uncontroverted. On the day he escaped from St. Elizabeths Green, using a toy gun, robbed a real estate office in Southeast Washington in the vicinity of the hospital and his mother’s home. The employee victim of the robbery telephoned the Fifth Precinct police station, less than a block away, describing the robber. As the policeman on the telephone was taking the description, he looked out the window and saw Green passing carrying a brown paper bag in which the loot was found upon his arrest outside the station house.
All of the psychiatrists testifying on trial seemed to agree generally that Green was suffering from schizophrenia at the time he was examined some weeks before the trial. All but one also testified that the illness was in remission at that time. Some of the psychiatrists testified, without contradiction, that under stress and strain symptoms of the disease in remission may recur. No questions were asked of any witnesses whether his trial could have reactivated Green’s symptoms of mental illness or, indeed, whether in fact they had been reactivated from any cause.
This evidence does not show Green was incompetent to stand trial. But that, of course, is not the issue here. This evidence does show that on trial the competence question was ignored in spite of the bizarre circumstances surrounding his offense, including the fact that he was an escapee from a mental institution at the time. See Floyd v. United States, 5 Cir., 365 F.2d 368 (1966); Krause v. Fogliani, Nev.Sup.Ct., 421 P.2d 949 (1966). Indeed, Green was still legally committed to St. Elizabeths by reason of insanity even at the time of his trial,3 and on argument we are advised that he is presently in residence there. Moreover, as.the evidence on trial indicates, the fact that Green’s schizophrenia was found to be in remission several weeks before the trial does not preclude the possibility that it may have been reactivated, perhaps by the trial itself. If this case does not require a Pate v. Robinson hearing to determine competence, one that does may be a long time coming.
II
I concur in that part of the majority opinion which notes with approval the adoption in 1965 by the Judicial Conference of the District of Columbia Circuit of the following recommendation from its Committee on Pre-Trial Mental Examinations :
The report of a court-ordered pre-trial mental examination should be made in *957substantial detail, recounting what was done to get at the facts concerning the accused’s mental condition and what those facts are, not merely the conclusions the psychiatrists have drawn from the facts.
The Committee clearly explained what “substantial detail” meant. It asked that competency reports include: (1) Names of qualified psychiatrists and qualified psychologists who have examined the accused; (2) the number of examinations and the duration of each; (3) names of all neurological and psychological tests performed, together with a brief description of their results; (4) names of relatives, friends, employers and others contacted, together with brief summaries of the information provided by these sources; (5) a description of contact with and information provided by and to defense counsel and prosecution; (6) a description of the treatment of the defendant, including use of drug therapy; (7) a description of any significant change in the defendant during his commitment, including an evaluation of any incarceration recovery; (8) behavioral description of the defendant’s mental condition; (9) names of the professional persons attending the staff conference; (10) the prognosis.
The Committee also requested that whenever possible the competency report contain the following additional information: (a) Is the accused oriented as to time, place and events? (b) Is the accused able to describe events connected with the alleged crime? (c) Is the accused willing to cooperate with his counsel? (d) Will the accused be able to follow the evidence? (e) Will the accused be able to assist counsel in evaluating the testimony of witnesses? (f) If the trial is expected to be a long one, will the accused be able to meet the demands made upon him? (g) If the accused is unwilling to participate in the examination process, is this refusal the result of a mental disease or defect?
When the recommendation of the Judicial Conference did not lead to significant changes, Chief Judge Curran instructed Dr. Cameron, Superintendent of St. Eliz-abeths, that future hospital reports should contain the above information.4 Dr. Cameron replied that it was “beyond the capability of the Hospital with its present staff limitations” to furnish such detailed reports.5 But he referred to the possibility of simply giving the court all the hospital records relating to the defendant. In any event, it is clear that more information must be made available if we are to have informed judicial, as distinguished from medical, decisions on competence.

. See People v. Pennington, Cal., 58 Cal. Rptr. 374, 381, 426 P.2d 942, 949 (1967), in which the California Supreme Court held that where there is “substantial evidence of present mental incompetence, [the defendant] is entitled to a [competency] hearing as a matter of right under Pate v. Robinson * * *. The judge then has no discretion to exercise.”

. Where substantial doubt as to the competence of the accused appears, the trial court, sua sponte, must hold a hearing on this issue. Pate v. Robinson, 383 U. S. 375, 385, 86 S.Ct. 836, 15 L.Ed.2d 815 (1966).

. See Green v. United States, 122 U.S.App. D.C. 33, 34 n. 1, 351 F.2d 198, 199 n. 1 (1965) (en banc).

. Letter from Chief Judge Curran to Dr. Cameron, May 19, 1967.

. Letter from Dr. Cameron to Chief Judge Curran, June 6, 1967.