Court Opinion

ID: 9714354
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:35:53.35948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:25.408090
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(dissenting). I do not think all expert opinion evidence on the issue of the accused’s capacity to form the specific intent to commit the alleged crime should automatically be excluded in all criminal cases in this state (i.e., bifurcated and “single stage” cases). I believe that the trial court should be permitted to determine on a case by case basis whether the evidence offered is relevant and competent.
Although in Hughes v. Mathews, 576 F.2d 1250 (7th Cir. 1978), the federal court of appeals pointed out that an evidentiary rule excluding relevant psychiatric opinion testimony on the issue of specific intent is itself constitutionally infirm because it deprives an accused in a criminal trial of the right under the sixth and fourteenth amendments to counter the state’s accusations with relevant and competent testimony, I believe the majority opinion adopts such a rule for both “single stage” and bifurcated trials and is thus in direct conflict with the *100Hughes case. The majority defends its rule, in part, by saying- that a defendant’s right to introduce even relevant expert opinion evidence bows to accommodate the state’s interest in maintaining the bifurcated trial. I cannot accept this reasoning, because the majority appears to place more value on maintaining the bifurcated trial process than on the defendant’s opportunity to defend himself effectively.
In the instant case the trial court gave the jury the instruction that “[t]he law presumes a person intends the natural and probable consequences of his own acts but the presumption may be rebutted.” I think this instruction is unconstitutional. Muller v. State, 94 Wis.2d 450, 478-490, 289 N.W.2d 570 (1980) (Abrahamson, J. dissenting) .
For these reasons, I would reverse the judgment and remand the cause for a new trial.