Court Opinion

ID: 9695589
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:23:59.363103+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:14.610236
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Me. Justice Cohen:
Defendant pleaded guilty to murder. The homicide was bizarre and barbarous. Defendant .met the victim at a bar and mutually decided upon sexual intercourse, went in defendant’s car to a secluded- field, undressed in the car at victim’s suggestion, and began preliminaries. Suddenly defendant began pounding the victim in the face, pushed her out of the car, grabbed a pen knife from the dash board, stabbed her ninety-times in rapid succession, concentrating on the breast area, cut open her chest, got in the car and ran over the victim twice. Defendant confessed to all this and pleaded guilty to murder, i.e., unlawful homicide with malice.
Pursuant to statute, a trial was held to determine the degree of murder. The Commonwealth and defendant agree, as does the majority, that the Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was murder in the first degree, i.e., the Comomnwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the murder was willful, deliberate and premeditated, sometimes capsulized into the formula “murder with the specific intent to take human life”. In other words, the .Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant’s state of mind at the time of the murder-conformed to the state of mind required for first degree murder.
*327The Commonwealth built its case in the classic way — showing a first degree murder state of mind from objective circumstances — use of a deadly weapon on a vital part of the body, the length of time it took to commit the crime giving time for deliberation and premeditation, (the Commonwealth admits that before defendant struck the first blow he had no intent to kill) and defendant’s actions subsequent to the homicide. There is no serious dispute that the Commonwealth’s evidence is sufficient to support a finding of first degree murder.
The defense introduced the testimony of a clinical psychologist and two psychiatrists. Their qualifications were not objected to. The admissibility of their testimony was objected to. The trial judge conditionally admitted it and postponed ruling on its admissibility until the conclusion of the trial. The psychologist and the psychiatrists had all personally examined defendant. Their testimony may be summarized as follows. In his preadolescent years defendant was forced into a continuous and unnatural sexual relationship with a person of the opposite sex. This person had him perform sadistic and painful sexual acts upon her breasts while they manipulated each others’ genitals and while she yelled with pain. These experiences were traumatic and caused a confusion of the pleasure-pain principles in defendant’s mind and an unconscious hostile reflex in defendant, which was triggered by the fondling of breasts. This psychiatric analysis was confirmed by the clinical psychologist’s objective tests and the history of defendant’s adult sex life, which was sadistic. It was the opinion of these experts that defendant’s personality disorder was such that, at the time of the homicide, he did not have a specific intent to take human life — that the homicide was not deliberate and premeditated.
*328There was no attempt to use this evidence to show that defendant was legally insane under the M’Naghten rule at the time of the crime. Indeed, the experts testified that defendant knew the nature and quality of his acts and that they were wrong. Nor does the defense request us to change the M’Naghten rule. The defense is not asserting legal insanity — i.e., a state of mind that would relieve defendant of criminal responsibility. All that the defense is ashing is that the evidence be admissible for the purpose of determining whether there is a reasonable doubt that the state of mind required for first degree murder accompanied the homicide. In other words, the defense is saying that the state of mind is a fact which the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and the evidence introduced is relevant to the existence or nonexistence of that fact and, therefore, should be admitted for that purpose.
The trial judge said in his opinion: “The acts of the defendant were so unusual — so bizarre — so senseless — so completely devoid of motive — that the explanation of the psychiatrists furnishes the only logical explanation. The court, who is the fact finding body in this instance, has chosen to believe the psychiatric explanation. We are therefore dealing with the situation where the testimony of the psychiatrists is accepted at face value and not where their testimony is swept under the rug as unworthy of belief.” There follows, in the trial judge’s opinion, a discussion of whether, notwithstanding its credibility, the testimony in question is legally admissible for the limited purpose of showing that a first degree murder state of mind did not, in fact, exist in defendant at the time of the homicide. The trial judge noted the lack of clarity in Pennsylvania law on the question — citing cases containing statements that would indicate either result. Frankly, after several readings of the opinion I cannot *329tell for certain whether the trial judge admitted the evidence, but found it- did not create a reasonable doubt, or whether he decided that under our law it could not be admitted, i.e., was not legally relevant to the ultimate fact in issue. In any event, he found defendant guilty of first degree murder. The parties have proceeded on the assumption that the trial judge refused to weigh the defendant’s evidence. I think there is sufficient doubt as to what he did to send the case back to him if we decide that defendant’s evidence should have been considered.
I do not find in the opinion of the majority any recognition of this problem. One of defendant’s statements of the questions involved is: “On a plea of guilty to a charge of murder, is psychiatric testimony that the mental condition of the Defendant negated his ability to premeditate, admissible to establish that the homicide was not murder in the first degree?”
The Commonwealth’s counter-statement of that question is: “After a guilty plea to a charge of murder, absent an insanity defense under the M’Naghten Rule, can psychiatric testimony be used to negate first degree murder?”
Both the statement and the counter-statement of the questions involved by the defendant and the Commonwealth indicate that the lower court refused to admit the testimony. But the majority opinion ignores that problem and decides the case as if the testimony had been admitted without sanctioning its admissibility and then decides that the evidence not in fact admitted was not of sufficient weight to overcome the Commonwealth’s evidence of first degree murder.
I believe that the psychological and psychiatric evidence should be admitted for the purpose of showing that a first degree murder state of mind did not exist in spite of the fact that it does not show legal insanity. The weight and ultimate finding is for the trier of fact, *330but I think the evidence should be considered. I base my belief on the following reasons: (1) Defendant’s argument is logically impeccable. The prosecution is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a certain specific state of mind (cold bloodedness) existed in defendant at the time of the homicide, and defendant’s evidence is logically very relevant on that issue. (2) Other jurisdictions that firmly adhere to M’Naghten’s rule, regarding insanity as a complete defense to criminal responsibility, nevertheless, admit this kind of evidence to show that the state of mind specifically required by the definition of first degree murder did not exist in defendant at the time of the crime. See e.g., California decisions: People v. Henderson, 386 P. 2d 677 (1963); People v. Gorshen, 336 P. 2d 492 (1959); People v. Wells, 202 P. 2d 53 (1949); Iowa: State v. Gramenz, 126 N.W. 2d 285 (1964); Colorado: Battalino v. People, 199 P. 2d 897 (1948) (containing many other cases); New Jersey: State v. DiPaolo, 168 A. 2d 401 (1961). (3) The evidence cannot be excluded on the basis of the general unreliability (as opposed to lack of weight in a particular case because of cross-examination or lack of foundation, etc.) of the “science” of psychiatry when one considers the universal acceptance of such evidence on the issue of legal insanity which completely negates criminal responsibility. (4) Evidence of intoxication, use of drugs, etc., is admitted where it is introduced for the purpose of creating a reasonable doubt regarding the existence of first degree murder state of mind. Commonwealth v. McCausland, 348 Pa. 275, 35 A. 2d 70 (1944). How can we admit such evidence in behalf of a willful intoxicant but not in behalf of an individual who, through no fault of his own, has a mental disorder? (5) All thoughtful commentators I have read have come to the same conclusion. See, e.g., Weihofen and Overholser, “Mental Disorder Affecting The Degree of a Crime”, *33156 Yale L. J. 959 (1947); Needy, “A Problem of First Degree Murder: Fisher v. United States”, 99 U. Pa. L. Rev. 267 (1950). (6) I have found no persuasive reasons against admission. One of the better reasons is set forth in one of our own early cases and is throughly discussed but rejected in 56 Yale L. J. 972-977 — an article cited above.
I would hold that the evidence should be admitted, that we should remand the case with the direction that the judgment is affirmed if the trial judge states that he weighed the evidence and it did not create a reasonable doubt in his mind, but reverse for a new trial if he states that he did not weigh the evidence.
I dissent.