Court Opinion

ID: 9467557
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:51:34.061606+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:24.458090
License: Public Domain

*957FLETCHER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent on the ground that the record before the district court necessarily created a “real, substantial, and legitimate doubt as to [Steinsvik’s] mental capacity” at the time he entered his guilty plea, Zapata v. Estelle, 588 F.2d 1017, 1021-22 (5th Cir. 1979). I would remand for an evidentiary hearing on the issue of whether Steinsvik was competent.
I agree that Steinsvik’s behavior at the time he entered his plea would not have raised a good-faith doubt as to his competence. Steinsvik appeared to understand the consequences of his plea, and appeared to be able to make a rational choice among the alternatives presented to him. By the time Steinsvik’s habeas petition was filed, however, additional evidence on the issue of his competence had surfaced. In view of this additional evidence, I believe the district court erred in failing to hold an evidentiary hearing.
At the time of sentencing, the state court had before it the presentence report revealing that Steinsvik had a history of psychological problems and had made a number of suicide attempts. The state court did not know, however, that approximately thirty-three hours before the hearing at which Steinsvik pled guilty, he had been admitted to Ballard Community Hospital after taking an overdose of barbiturates. This court still does not know the amount of barbiturates Steinsvik took, or whether he was still under the influence of drugs at the time he entered his plea. We also do not know whether Steinsvik’s overdose was accidental or was yet another suicide attempt.
If Steinsvik was under the influence of drugs at the time he pled guilty, his understanding of the nature and consequences of his plea could well have been affected. United States v. Sanders, 373 U.S. 1, 19-20, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 1079, 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963); United States v. Malcolm, 432 F.2d 809, 812 (2d Cir. 1970).1 The magistrate in this case found that “there is no evidence to indicate that [Steinsvik] was under the influence of .. . drugs at 9:00 a. m. on February 1, 1971,” the time of the hearing on Steinsvik’s plea. In my view, this finding is clearly erroneous. The evidence before the magistrate was and is sufficient to raise a “real, legitimate, and substantial” doubt as to Steinsvik’s competence at the time he entered his guilty plea. Van Poyck v. Wainwright, 595 F.2d 1083, 1085 (5th Cir. 1979); see Saddler v. United States, 531 F.2d 83 (2d Cir. 1976); Manley v. United States, 396 F.2d 699 (5th Cir. 1968).
Van Poyck, Saddler, and Manley are instructive on this point. In Van Poyck the defendant had attempted to hang himself and had set fire to his mattress while in jail. The state court, not knowing of these incidents, accepted the defendant’s guilty plea because the defendant behaved rationally in court. The Fifth Circuit held that the defendant had “alleged sufficient facts in federal court to raise a real, legitimate, and substantial issue as to his mental capacity at the time he pled” and was therefore “entitled ... to an evidentiary hearing on his competence to plead guilty.” 595 F.2d at 1085.
The defendant in Saddler also appeared “rational and coherent” at the time he entered his guilty plea, but the court was unaware that he had “a history of mental illness, including hospitalization . . . after an attempted suicide.” 531 F.2d at 85. The court was, however, aware of this history by the time of sentencing two months later. The Second Circuit remanded for an *958evidentiary hearing on whether the defendant had been competent at the time he entered his plea, holding that the evidence, together with the defendant’s “incoherence” at the time of sentencing, was sufficient to raise a doubt. Id. at 86.2
In Manley, the defendant was going through withdrawal on the morning of his plea hearing and had been given two injections. The court was informed of this fact, but did not know the type or effect of the injections. Because the effect of the drugs on the defendant was unknown, the Fifth Circuit held that the evidence was “wholly insufficient to support the District Court’s determination that the drugs administered to appellant were of á nature and in an amount which could not have affected his powers and faculties at the time of arraignment and plea.” 396 F.2d at 701. As the Manley court observed, “ ‘[i]t is hardly necessary to add that certainty as to the lack of any mental effects from drugs upon a defendant in his trial and conviction is a matter of particular judicial solicitude.’ ” Id. (quoting Hayes v. United States, 305 F.2d 540, 543 (8th Cir. 1962)).
As in Manley, the defendant here may have been under the influence of drugs at the time he entered his plea. As in Van Poyck, he may have attempted suicide shortly before the plea hearing. He obviously had a history of psychological problems and suicide attempts, as in Saddler. To my mind, the combination of these factors necessarily raises a doubt as to Steinsvik’s competence to plead guilty. I would reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing.

. The majority relies on an affidavit submitted by Dr. Naugher, which concludes that barbiturates “have no direct impact on the patient’s conscious ability to comprehend or to make rational decisions” and do not render a patient “incapable of ... rational thought processes.” See n. 5 supra (emphasis added). I am discomfited by my inability to understand the import of the doctor’s statement in light of the qualifying adjectives he uses. Putting that aside, however, in my view a defendant is not competent to plead guilty while under the influence of drugs “which could be expected to make a person less acute or aware, less reactive and with lessened capacity to make an important decision.” Manley v. United States, 396 F.2d 699, 700 (5th Cir. 1968). The record does not show whether the barbiturates taken by Steinsvik may have had this effect on him.

. Saddler suggests that Steinsvik’s presentence report, standing alone, was sufficient to raise a doubt as to his competence. I do not reach this issue, since I believe that the presentence report, coupled with the evidence of the barbiturate overdose, clearly raised such a doubt.