Court Opinion

ID: 9485797
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:30:08.072119+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:21.761023
License: Public Domain

LOGAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in most of what is said in Judge Holloway’s opinion and its result. I agree that if defendant has a host personality and proves by clear and convincing evidence that an alter or alters were in control when the crime was committed, and that the host personality had no control over the alter personality during the commission of the crime, then defendant is entitled to a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
I agree with the majority that if the individual has a medically definable host personality, then the “defendant” is that host personality for purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 17. I think this follows from psychiatric science’s best possible definition of who the individual “is.” Consequently, if during the events in question an alter was the extant personality, the defendant must ordinarily be given the opportunity to prove that the host was unaware of the alter’s actions, or did not appreciate their wrongfulness. This standard will not open the floodgates to a host of “the devil made me do it” defenses. The defendant must satisfy her burden of production by presenting credible evidence that she suffers from multiple personality disorder (MPD), such that a jury could find by clear and convincing proof that the host personality was not in control or did not understand the nature and quality or wrongfulness of the alter’s actions.
I write principally to note that it may not be as difficult for the government to prevail as Judge Holloway’s opinion might suggest. Federal Rule of Evidence 704(b) prohibits expert witnesses from expressing a view on the ultimate question of insanity at a trial. Thus, as Judge Holloway’s opinion acknowledges, if there is sufficient evidence to permit the submission, then the determination of whether the defendant had the mental capacity “to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of [her] acts,” 18 U.S.C. § 17(a), is strictly a jury question. Because the district court rejected the defense theory of the insanity defense at the close of the defense’s presentation, the government did not present rebuttal testimony. The record contains only the report of the government’s expert.
Judge Holloway’s opinion does not focus on the possibility that the host personality was a participant in planning the abduction, which, of course, also would subject defendant to liability. In the instant case there were pre-tentions of pregnancy over a long period before the abduction. Apparently hospitals were scouted, checks were made of defendant’s ex-boyfriend’s blood type, and baby clothes were acquired. One or more elaborate schemes were concocted for defendant to acquire a baby. Human placenta and apparently blood were stolen from the hospital to create the impression of defendant’s ostensible delivery of the abducted baby. The jury would be entitled to find these are the acts of a mentally disturbed but highly educated nurse host personality desperate to hold on to a lost boyfriend. As Judge Holloway’s opinion notes, there was also a two-week period after the abduction during which the host personality was at least sometimes aware of her possession of the baby.
The evidence is strong enough that I think it is a close question whether a reasonable jury could find a verdict of not guilty for Gidget, the host personality, on the insanity defense. But the defendant’s psychiatrist testified that MPD individuals tend to cover up the acts committed by their alters, and if concealing evidence of the alters’ activities is actually caused by MPD then it too fits into an insanity defense. I believe that this testimony of the defendant’s psychiatrist, taken together with her testimony that the host personality Gidget had no part in the plan*1023ning or the carrying out of this activity, is enough to create an issue for the jury’s determination.
Thus, I concur.