Court Opinion

ID: 9707084
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:01:57.885308+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:27.968017
License: Public Domain

VAIDIK, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully disagree with the majority that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding Johnson's mental illness as a mitigator and then in finding as aggrava-tors that Johnson did not regularly take his medication for schizophrenia and that Johnson is a risk if he is released from prison and does not take his medication. Although the two aggravators are phrased differently from the mitigator that Johnson has schizophrenia, they both deal with Johnson's failure to take his medication, which is a hallmark of schizophrenia.
Johnson's mother testified at the sentencing hearing that Johnson oftentimes does not take his medication because "the voices are telling him that it's poison." Tr. p. 86. Johnson's mom, who administers his medication, went on to say that she "can't make a grown person do nothing that they don't want to do. ... Now I don't know what he does with it afterwards he pretends like he swallows it or whatever." Id. Johnson's mom further explained that the "voices" tell Johnson that he does not need to take the medication. Id. at 37.
Studies show that chronic schizophrenic patients globally have a medication noncompliance rate of fifty percent. J.L. Young et al., Medication Noncompliance in Schizophrenia Codification and Update, 14 Bull. Am. Acad. Psychiatry & Law 105 (1986), abstract available at http:// www.ne bi.nlm.nih.gov/en-trez/query.fegi?CMD=Display & DB=pubmed. Noncompliance rates are higher with schizophrenic patients than with other patients. Salleh M. Razali & Hassan Yahya, Health Education and Drug Counseling for Schizophrenia, 4 Int'l Med. J. 187 (1997), abstract available at http://www.jicef.or.jp/wahec/ful230.htm. This is because as a result of the illness, schizophrenic patients have an impaired capacity to cooperate. Id. They also develop poor insight and have negative attitudes toward treatment. Id. Because medication noncompliance is very common in schizophrenic patients in general and with Johnson in particular, I believe that Johnson's mental illness is either a miti-gator or it is not a mitigator, but it cannot be both a mitigator and two aggravators. See Wessling v. State, 798 N.E.Z2d 929, 939-40 (Ind.Ct.App.2008). Because the record does not contain any of the psychiatrists' reports concerning Johnson's mental illness, I am unable to determine the significance of Johnson's mental illness and the weight to which it is entitled.2 I would *1018therefore remand the case for a new sentencing order.

. After pronouncing sentence, the trial court stated:
For purposes of the record the Court has considered the August 16, 2005 letter from *1018Dr. Caruana, the December 23, 2003 letter from Dr. Caruana, the March 29, 2004 report from Dr. Prasad. The July 11, 2005 report from Dr. Prasad and the February 5, 2004 report from Dr. Caruana. In addition to the October 3, 2005 report from Dr. Koons, as well as the medical treatment summary provided by the State and made a record. The Court's previous medical reports will be made a group exhibit and made part or be made part of the record. Tr. p. 66. Despite these comments by the trial court, none of these documents are part of the record before us.