Court Opinion

ID: 9454718
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:56:11.458551+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:15.891186
License: Public Domain

BAZELON, Chief Judge
(concurring) :
A psychiatrist may play several roles in a habeas corpus proceeding initiated by a patient committed under 24 D.C. Code § 301(d) (1967). The failure of the majority to distinguish among these roles produces needless confusion concerning the claims of the appellant in this case and the proper resolution of the issues presented.
First, and most obviously, the psychiatrist may examine the petitioner, report to the court and testify concerning his conclusions. In this role, the psychiatrist whether hired by the patient, appointed by the court or employed by Saint Elizabeths Hospital is by oath impartial. The majority merely states the obvious when it concludes that the appellant cannot claim a right to favorable testimony from a “friendly” expert.
The uncertainty surrounding the diagnosis of and prognosis for mental illness is such that an affluent patient able to finance a thorough search may likely find an expert whose honest testimony will be favorable to his cause. But despite the suspicion with which the law views distinctions based upon wealth in court proceedings, it has not yet been found practicable to assure the indigent patient the same scope for psychiatrist-shopping that the rich patient enjoys. The indigent patient may perhaps claim some voice in the choice of an independent expert who is qualified and impartial; as the majority points out, the appellant cannot demand an expert who “agrees” with him.
But this is not the appellant’s request; his counsel in fact explicitly refuses to roost upon this straw man erected by the majority. Mr. Proctor claims a right not to the favorable testimony of a psychiatrist, but to the assistance of a psychiatrist in preparing his case.
A psychiatrist plays quite different roles in testifying and in providing assistance off the witness stand to a patient seeking release. Testimony should ring clear and true. But the premise of our law is that truth is best insured by an adversarial struggle. Because this is so, the majority enters quite another realm when it slides from the self-obvious proposition that the appellant is not entitled to the favorable testimony of a psychiatrist to the quite different conclusion that “neither sound administra*389tion, basic fairness nor contitutional standards” may entitle the appellant and his appointed counsel to assistance from a qualified psychiatrist “in structuring cross-examination of the hospital doctors so as to neutralize their testimony.”
The central tenet of the adversarial process is that each side should attempt to “neutralize” the evidence of the other side. That purpose alone explains the right to confrontation and cross-examination. The majority opinion suggests that the impartiality of the hopsital psychiatrist all but obviates the need for effective cross-examination. This argument might be valid if our only concern were the possibility of bias or bad faith. But the right to cross-examination serves broader needs. The direct testimony of even an impartial expert may be, however unintentionally, incomplete or otherwise misleading to a fact-finder unversed in psychiatry. The risk is multiplied by the fact that a Government attorney elicits this direct testimony. It is unnecessary to accuse either the neutral psychiatrist or the Government attorney of bad faith in order to conclude that vigorous cross-examination is essential to provide the fullest and most balanced presentation to the fact-finder.
The appointment of counsel, while not a matter of constitutional right in habeas corpus proceedings,1 2*is appropriate and necessary “where a petition * * presents a triable issue of fact the clear presentation of which requires an ability to organize factual data or to call witnesses and elicit testimony in a logical fashion * * United States ex rel. Wissenfeld v. Wilkins, 281 F.2d 707, 715 (2d Cir. 1960). In addition to structuring the petitioner’s affirmative case, a lawyer is also necessary to conduct the effective cross-examination which can “neutralize” opposing witnesses.
But if an indigent patient needs and is entitled to a lawyer, far more may he also need the assistance of a psychiatrist in the preparation of his case. This court has often pointed out the difficulty a lawyer untutored in the arcane mysteries of psychiatry may encounter when appointed to represent an indigent who is mentally disturbed.2 If the attorney is cut off from all sources of expert assistance on these matters, the patient may be effectively denied his right to an adversarial determination of his mental health and likely dangerousness.
It is, however, far easier to announce the principle that an indigent patient and his attorney are entitled to some psychiatric assistance preparing for and participating in an adversarial hearing than to map out a workable means to implement the right. This Court pointed out in Thornton v. Corcoran, swpra, the duty of the professional staff at Saint Eliza-beths Hospital to cooperate with counsel appointed to represent indigent patients. It seems even more clear that a psychiatrist appointed to conduct an independent examination should also be available for consultation by appointed counsel.
An independent psychiatrist rendering such assistance must of course distinguish scrupulously between his role as an impartial expert in reporting to the court and testifying, and his role as an adviser on psychiatric matters for the patient’s counsel. Delicate questions will, of course, arise. But an independent psychiatrist could, it would seem, advise an attorney of the nature of his indigent client’s mental abnormalities, the degree of uncertainty surrounding diagnoses of this sort.of illness, and the *390lines of inquiry which might best help his client.
The record in this case does not demonstrate that the appointed psychiatrist, or for that matter the hospital doctors themselves, refused to cooperate with the appointed counsel for the appellant. Consequently, I can not conclude that the appellant has shown a denial of the sort of psychiatric assistance in the preparation of his case to which he is entitled. Accordingly, I concur in the result reached by the majority.

. See Brown v. Cameron, 122 U.S.App. D.C. 297, 298 n. 1, 353 F.2d 835, 836 n. 1 (1965); Dorsey v. Gill, 80 U.S.App. D.C. 9, 29, 148 F.2d 857, 877, cert. denied, 325 U.S. 890, 65 S.Ct. 1580, 89 L. Ed. 2003 (1945); but see Roach v. Bennett, 392 F.2d 743, 748 (8th Cir. 1968).

. See Thornton v. Corcoran, 132 U.S.App.D.C. 232, 238, 407 F.2d 695, 701 (January 3, 1969); Henderson v. United States, 123 U.S.App.D.C. 380, 385, 360 F.2d 514, 518-19 (1966) (concurring opinion); Rollerson v. United States, 119 U.S.App.D.C. 400, 406, 343 F.2d 269, 274-275 (1964); Jackson v. United States, 118 U.S.App.D.C. 341, 346, 336 F.2d 579, 584 (1964).