Court Opinion

ID: 9551667
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:56:55.057364+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:21.639045
License: Public Domain

McFADDEN, Justice,
dissenting.
Pursuant to defendant’s notice of intent to rely upon the defense of mental disease or defect, and pursuant to defendant’s motion, the district court ordered that the Director of the Department of Health and Welfare appoint two psychiatrists to conduct an examination of the defendant and to submit a report of examination to the court. I.C. § 18-211. An examination was conducted, and a report of the examination was prepared and submitted to the court. The report of examination included a description of the nature of the examination, the diagnosis of the mental condition of the defendant, and the opinion that the defendant had the capacity to understand the proceedings against him and to assist in his own defense. The report of examination, however, did not include an opinion as to the defendant’s capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct to or conform his conduct to the requirements of the law at the time of the alleged criminal conduct, as required under I.C. § 18-211(3)(d). Nonetheless, the district court ruled that the omission was corrected by the testimony of Dr. Azar at the hearing contesting the findings of the report of examination. Based upon this ruling, the majority opines that the defendant was not entitled to an independent psychiatric evaluation at state expense because he had already received an examination at state expense which was rendered adequate by the testimony adduced at the hearing.
It is apparent that the intended purpose of granting a motion for an independent psychiatric evaluation is to provide defense counsel, who is ordinarily not an expert in psychiatric matters, the knowledge necessary to determine if a defense of lack of criminal responsibility is tenable, and to help prepare the defense if it is so determined. In this regard, it is to be further observed that an examination which is adequate to determine competency to stand trial and report thereof, and which would primarily involve the issue as to whether *400the defendant’s mental competency at the time of the examination and at the anticipated time of trial, may not be of the depth and detail necessary to determine the more subtle question as to whether or not a defendant was mentally capable of possessing the requisite intent to commit the charged criminal offense, which would necessitate the examination of the defendant’s mental capabilities or processes at an earlier date, i.e., the time of commission of the alleged crime. United States v. Schultz, 431 F.2d 907, 912 (8th Cir. 1970). See generally, United States v. Driscoll, 399 F.2d 135 (2d Cir. 1968); Winn v. United States, 270 F.2d 326 (D.C.Cir.1959); cert. denied, 365 U.S. 848, 81 S.Ct. 810, 5 L.Ed.2d 812 (1961); Blunt v. United States, 244 F.2d 355 (D.C. Cir.1957).
Assuming the district court here was correct in ruling that the testimony of Dr. Azar corrected the deficiency in the report of examination as to the subtler question of the defendant’s criminal responsibility at the time of the offense, I am perplexed by the majority’s affirmance of the district court’s denial of defendant’s motion for public funds to obtain a transcript of the hearing at which Dr. Azar’s testimony was adduced. The majority in effect is saying to the defendant that you are not entitled to an independent psychiatric evaluation at state expense because the testimony of Dr. Azar addresses the question of your criminal responsibility at the time the charged offense (a question not addressed in the report of examination), but we are not going to let you have a transcript of that testimony to study and assess the strength of Dr. Azar’s conclusion. Defense counsel is placed in the untenable position of determining if a defense of insanity is tenable without the benefit of documentation of expert testimony from which to make such a determination, simply because his client is indigent. As stated in the landmark case of Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 17, 19, 76 S.Ct. 585, 589, 590, 100 L.Ed. 891 (1956):
“In this tradition, our own constitutional guaranties of due process and equal protection both call for procedures in criminal trials which allow no invidious discriminations between persons and different groups of persons. Both equal protection and due process emphasize the central aim of our entire judicial system — all people charged with crime must, so far as the law is concerned, ‘stand on an equality before the bar of justice in every American court.’
There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.” (Emphasis added.)
Drawing upon the foregoing, the United States Supreme Court in Britt v. North Carolina, 404 U.S. 226, 227, 92 S.Ct. 431, 433, 30 L.Ed.2d 400 (1971), made it further clear that “state[s] must, as a matter of equal protection, provide indigent prisoners with the basic tools of an adequate defense or appeal, when those tools are available for a price to other prisoners.” Thus viewed, the result arrived at today by the majority is contrary to the constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
BISTLINE, J., concurs.