Court Opinion

ID: 9687070
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:15:22.738366+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:24.061697
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. As it appears that there are really no facts developed by the majority writing, it is incumbent that the reader have appreciation of the factual background in this case.
Primeaux was a twenty-year-old American Indian at the time of this defense. He had been recently discharged from the United States Army for fighting with a knife. One of the defense witnesses, a lay person, testified that Primeaux would “get up once in awhile and salute.” He was a very troubled young man and evidence established, by lay testimony, that he talked of being lonely and sad and wanted to belong to some part of society but mentioned that everywhere he went he was not wanted. Primeaux’s mother died while he was serving in the United States Army, and it had a depressing effect upon him. On the date of the homicide, a witness testified that he was walking down the street with Primeaux and Primeaux was singing songs from the military service and, as he did so, was saying cadence, right, left. Out of nowhere, the witness testified that after he would do this cadence, he would stop and pause and make commands and would then bellow “forward march.” There was testimony that his father really did not know him any longer after he returned from the service. On the day of the homicide, he acted very strange and he would kick his heels and salute, expressing he was going to take his flag and hang it on his friend’s wall. Although there had been no preceding argument or fisticuffs, he acted aggressive to his friend. Alcoholic consumption exacerbated the peculiar conduct.
Primeaux stabbed the decedent, Rodney Provost, fifteen times and also stabbed two other people at a trailer home in Wagner, South Dakota. The majority does not point it out, but Primeaux was sentenced to life imprisonment plus four and six years for two counts of aggravated assault. These assault convictions and judgments were to *273run concurrently with the life sentence. On the night of the homicide, a series of fights erupted at a residence in Wagner, South Dakota. Alcohol played a major part in the evening’s festivities. Two women were arguing in this residence in addition to an antecedent assault, wherein Provost had pushed one Fred Kazena, Jr., out of the home. While these events were going on, Primeaux was not even in the home. In fact, when all the trouble was going on in this home, Primeaux knocked on the door. He was warned by the ejected Kazena that the people inside were drunk and that Provost had threatened to bite Kazena. According to the State’s brief, Provost punched Primeaux in the mouth, as Primeaux entered, sending Primeaux backwards off the porch and onto a car parked outside. Primeaux “came to,” per State’s brief, and walked up the steps and knocked on the door again. He was told he could come in and he did, whereupon he was offered beer to drink. Primeaux sat down in the living room.
Primeaux had been drinking throughout the afternoon and evening. A woman named Debbie and Provost began to fight and suddenly Primeaux, not engaged in the fight at all, pulled a knife from his boot and approached a woman called Lydia, who was attempting to intervene and try to stop the fight. Primeaux then stabbed Lydia in the upper left back. When she stood up, Primeaux stabbed her again, this time close to her left breast. Provost was on the floor, and had quit fighting with Debbie, apparently as a result of the startling development of Primeaux stabbing Lydia. Primeaux then stood over Provost and inflicted several stab wounds. These included wounds in the neck and five knife wounds to the chest and six wounds in the upper back.
Kazena then reentered the home and was immediately stabbed by Primeaux. Pri-meaux, who had literally gone berserk, stabbed Kazena again. Later, Primeaux went to a friend’s house and went to sleep, explaining that Provost had slapped his sister and then slapped him and he decided to take out his knife. Primeaux was covered with blood on his face, trousers and boots, when an officer arrived at the friend’s house.
Trial counsel attempted to prove insanity by lay witnesses only. No notice of the insanity defense was served by defense counsel upon the State’s Attorney as required by South Dakota law. State made a motion to strike the insanity defense. Trial court expressed, in denying the State’s Attorney’s motion to strike this defense: “[T]he court has to observe that without such [expert] testimony the defense is going to be hard put to perhaps convince this jury[.]”
Eight days before the trial was scheduled to commence, Dr. Bean submitted his only report to defense counsel. Lead trial counsel did not discuss Dr. Bean’s evaluation and his report until after the trial commenced, i.e., no preparation for trial. According to Bean’s evaluation, Habeas Corpus Transcript, page 23: (1) Primeaux was competent to stand trial, and (2) there were no signs or symptoms of mental illness at the time of the alleged crime. Dr. Bean’s evaluation took place in the Minne-haha County Jail in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and lasted one hour and forty-five minutes. Recognized tests in the field of forensic psychology were not administered by Dr. Bean. These include: Rorschach ink blot; thematic apperception, Minnesota Multiphasic Personal Inventory, Stanford-Binet: Wechsler-Belview, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Seale, Wechsler Memory Scale; Wechsler-Bellevue; Reitan Neutopsycho-logical Battery, Bender-Gestalt Drawing; Graham-Kendall Memory for Designs, or Szond. Dr. Bean did not develop or obtain medical history of any diseases Primeaux had suffered, accidents, prolonged fevers, insomnia, drowsiness or venereal diseases. Primeaux’s childhood, hostility, or schooling was not developed nor his degree of mental ability. In short, this special writer maintains, the examination was perfunctory. Couple this with this testimony, page 23, Habeas Corpus Hearing Transcript:
Mr. Tappe: ... you did not discuss the insanity defense with Dr. Bean, at least prior to trial?
*274Mr. Wipf: Are you talking about me, personally?
Mr. Tappe: You, personally, yes.
Mr. Wipf: No, I would say that’s true.
Mr. Tappe: You would say that’s true, that you did not discuss the case personally with Dr. Bean?
Mr. Wipf: No, that Mr. Cotton did that.
As I read the record, Mr. Cotton had been out of law school about five months.
In the defense counsel’s opening statement, his only mention of insanity was: “The evidence will show panic, fright, and we believe an element of temporary insanity. Thank you very much.”
Trial counsel essentially abandoned the insanity defense in closing argument. Said defense was barely mentioned and it was impacted with these words to the jury: “I’m not going to tell you that Roscoe was mentally ill.” (Emphasis added.) Gone was the defense entered (not guilty by reason of mental illness which was instructed by the trial court, instructions no. 15 and 21). Furthermore, defense counsel expressed, “... and I’m not going to tell you he had a depraved mind.” (Emphasis added.) Gone was any reason for the trial court to have instructed on what constituted a depraved mind, instruction no. 24. I note, per instruction no. 14, that Primeaux was given a self-defense instruction for the jury to consider. In closing argument, lead defense counsel expressed: “I am not going to tell you that he did this in self-defense.” Habeas defense counsel introduced Respondent’s Exhibit H into evidence, a fifteen-page transcribed interview between Attorney Wipf and Primeaux on October 19, 1981. At page 13 thereof, Pri-meaux told Wipf that he could not handle the victim with his fists, that victim “was enraged,” that he was in “physical danger,” that victim was “ready” and “coming at me,” and “I felt fear of him.” The statements of defense counsel prejudiced Primeaux. Three lay defense witnesses, namely Carol Weddell, Anthony Ponca, and Denise Freeman testified, essentially, that Primeaux did have a depraved mind. So defense counsel stripped away the impact of the lay witnesses.
Under State v. Phipps, 318 N.W.2d 128 (S.D.1982), there was a usurpation of Pri-meaux’s constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. Under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), there was a reasonable probability that but for these professional errors, the result would have been different. Strickland defined reasonable probability as “a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.” 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068. (Emphasis supplied mine.) Justice Amundson has expressed that Primeaux did not receive a fair trial because, essentially, of the manner in which Dr. Bean’s testimony was placed before the jury and characterizes it as being prejudicial testimony to such an extent that the result is not reliable. I agree with that comment, based upon his observation, plus the matter set forth in his writing.
Calling three lay witnesses to the stand to advance an insanity defense, without expert testimony, was destined for failure. State, realizing Dr. Bean (Primeaux’s expert) could easily negate this lay testimony, called Dr. Bean as a rebuttal witness. Defense counsel had not prepared Primeaux’s case effectively because Dr. Bean’s evaluation and examination was extremely limited, as set forth above. Unfortunately, defense counsel did not interview Primeaux’s friends or his relatives, failed to check into his medical history, and obtained no historical data on Primeaux. In effect, defense counsel left his client defenseless. This has been condemned in Profitt v. Waldron, 831 F.2d 1245, 1248-49 (5th Cir.1987), and People v. Saunders, 54 A.D.2d 938, 388 N.Y.S.2d 142 (1976).
Remarkably, a lawyer recently graduated from law school, appears to have been delegated by defense counsel to bear the brunt of establishing the defense of insanity (this lawyer, Mr. Cotton, handled the cross-examination of Dr. Bean), and he candidly admitted, under oath, that he did not know if any forensic psychology tests had been performed upon his client. Lead counsel for Primeaux testified he was not sure if he ever talked to Dr. Bean. There*275at, new defense counsel could move to secure an expert’s opinion on the mental condition of Primeaux. The habeas court refused to appoint psychiatric assistance at that proceeding to develop Primeaux’s claim that the initial evaluation at the trial court level was inadequate, and trial counsel relied upon a singular evaluation which was perfunctory and highly damaging to Primeaux’s defense of insanity. Trial defense counsel should have explored obtaining a second opinion — he had a duty to investigate. Beavers v. Balkcom, 636 F.2d 114 (5th Cir.1981).
It appears there was no prompt and thorough investigation to determine what an undertaking might disclose. We have ineffective assistance of counsel before us and I must call a spade — a spade. Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 58, 53 S.Ct. 55, 60, 77 L.Ed. 158 (1932); State v. McBride, 296 N.W.2d 551, 553 (S.D.1980).
I cannot join the majority opinion. A new jury trial should be held herein with an opportunity for pretrial motions, discovery, and preparation for trial. Primeaux, in my opinion, was denied the effective assistance of counsel guaranteed to him by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He is before us on Habeas Corpus, the great writ of liberty. He has now been confined for over eleven years in the State Penitentiary. He was twenty years old when he was charged and is approximately thirty-one years old now. He faces a lifetime of incarceration. It does not appear he had a fair trial. Justice demands that he receive one. A certain depth must attend every defense. True, lawyers have great diversity and this begets a different quality of representation. Underlying it all, there must exist a predominating range of legal competence to achieve the task before that lawyer. Simply put, a lawyer who places a defense of insanity before a jury must have some substance within that defense. In closing argument, defense counsel expressed, “The man would have to be crazy to do that. Oh, I guess that is one of our defenses, mental illness.” (Emphasis added.) This statement was but an echo which reigned in the defense encampment by which it was environed.