State v. Craney

• Decision Date: 11 April 1984
• Docket Number: No. 69614,69614
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Michael Cecil CRANEY, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 668

347 N.W.2d 668

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Michael Cecil CRANEY, Appellant.

No. 69614.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

April 11, 1984.

Rehearing Denied May 10, 1984.

James F. Whalen of Dunbar, Dunbar & Whalen, Waterloo, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen., Roxann M. Ryan, Asst. Atty. Gen. and Philip E. Havens, County Atty., for appellee.

Considered by REYNOLDSON, C.J., and UHLENHOPP, HARRIS, LARSON, and CARTER, JJ.

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

This appeal involves legal issues which arose in a first-degree murder prosecution.

The jury could find the facts as follows. At the time of the incident in question defendant Michael Cecil Craney and his wife Kimberly had a fifteen-day-old child, Matthew. Previously defendant had undergone periods of depression and delusions and had abused alcohol and drugs. The day before the incident he worked on his brother's farm. That evening he complained of tiredness and "felt like his brain was fried." His wife, thinking he was going to destroy their record collection for religious reasons, told him if he did so she would leave him. Defendant complained that he had never done anything right in his life. He picked up the baby, who apparently struck him on the cheek. He said the baby also knew how bad and low he was.

After defendant and Kimberly went to bed defendant talked of demons and fires. About 10:30 p.m. he went out into the rain and uttered a "terrible scream." Back in the house, he said he had to get his brother's forgiveness.

Defendant then drove to his brother on a farm, and begged forgiveness. His two brothers drove to town with him to get sleeping medicine, but defendant refused to enter the convenience store because it sold pornography. Defendant then went home.

Defendant told his wife he was "possessed", and about midnight got up with her for the child-feeding. He "sort of stared." At the feeding about 5:30 a.m., Kimberly told defendant she thought she would take the baby away for a day to rest. Defendant implored her not to go until his fever broke, yet he did not appear to have a fever. He also said he thought the baby was possessed. Kimberly assured him she would not leave.

At about 6:30 a.m. defendant got up, went into the baby's room, and, according to Kimberly:

Q. And what is the next thing that you saw or heard? A. I heard gurgling noises and I saw Mike in the baby's room walking around, and then I heard gurgling noises and I got up and I went into the room. And he had the baby out of the bed and one hand was behind the baby's neck and one hand was on his face.

Q. Then did you say or do anything at that time? A. I tried to get the baby. I asked him what he was doing or something to that effect. And I couldn't get him away from him and we wrestled to the floor, and I was still trying to get a hold of him and get Mike's hand off him, and I couldn't. He had his hand on his throat and I couldn't get him away, so I went down and called the police.

Q. Now, at the time that you were upstairs in the baby's room were you screaming at Mike? A. Probably.

Q. While you were on the telephone calling the police did you see Mike and the baby again? A. Yes. He brought him downstairs.

Q. How did he have a hold of him when he brought him downstairs? A. With his two hands around his neck.

Q. Did he hold him out of front of him? A. Yes.

Q. And when he brought him downstairs were you still on the telephone? A. Yes.

Q. Where is the telephone located at your house? A. On the left side of the counter in the dining room.

Q. And I think you've indicated before that the kitchen and dining room are close together, they are adjacent to one another? A. Yes, they are separated by a bar.

Q. And after Michael brought the baby downstairs, I think you indicated that he came to the dining room; is that correct? A. Yes.

Q. And he-- A. He went around the counter, the other side of the counter opposite of where I was, and went to the drawer where I keep my cooking utensils and knives. And I was screaming over the phone at the police person and I got around to the drawer, and he was trying to get a knife, and I was trying to keep it closed. And he jerked it open and grabbed the knife out. Then he turned around and slammed the baby to the floor, and then I started hitting him on the head with the phone and screaming at him and trying to grab the knife away.

Q. At the time that you mentioned that you tried to grab the baby--tried to grab the knife away, was Mike stabbing your baby? A. Yes.

Q. After you saw Mike stab the baby, did he leave? A. Yes. He threw the knife down and ran back around the other side of the counter where he came from before, and I told him to get out and to look what he had done to our baby. And I told him not to take the keys to the car. He grabbed the extra set of keys off the key hook.

The child sustained numerous stab wounds, a fractured skull, and a slit throat, and died.

The county attorney charged defendant with premeditated first-degree murder. A jury found him guilty, the trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment, and he appealed.

I. Sannito testimony. Thomas Sannito holds the degree of doctor of philosphy in psychology. After officers took defendant into custody, defendant asked to see Steven K. Ristvedt, a local attorney. Ristvedt called in Sannito to examine defendant on the question of sanity. Sannito examined defendant, and defendant gave Sannito background information and admitted that he killed the child. Sannito concluded that defendant was sane at the time of the act but that a basis existed for the defense of diminished responsibility. Ristvedt so informed the county attorney. See Iowa R.Crim.P. 10(11)(b )(2), 13(2)(b )(2), and 13(3)(b ) (reciprocal discovery). Initially the district court denied payment of Sannito's fee from public funds, but about two months later the court allowed payment.

Defendant gave notice of the defenses of insanity and diminished responsibility. In its case in chief at trial, the State introduced lay testimony in support of sanity, and also called Sannito as a witness. Sannito testified fully as to defendant's statements to him in the previous examination, including defendant's incriminating admissions of committing the homicide. In addition, Sannito opined that defendant was sane but had diminished capacity. On the mental issue, defendant introduced lay testimony in his evidence in chief at trial and also the testimony of Ristvedt, two psychiatrists, and another psychologist.

Defendant objected on three grounds before and during trial to the State's introduction of Sannito's testimony: violation of his privilege against self-incrimination under the fifth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution; violation of his right to effective assistance of counsel under the sixth and fourteenth amendments; and violation of the Iowa statutory attorney-client privilege.

Involved here is the question of the admissibility of testimony of an expert who, in connection with pending or impending litigation, examines a defendant for the purpose of making a report or giving testimony regarding the defendant's mental condition.

A. We must first decide whether the trial court erred under the fifth and fourteenth amendments in admitting all or part of the Sannito testimony and, if so, we must further decide upon the disposition we should make of the appeal.

1. This court has grappled with some aspects of the admissibility of testimony of the kind at hand. The court has held that the doctor-patient privilege does not arise in situations of the present kind because the purpose of the consultation was not diagnosis and treatment of the defendant. State v. Mayhew, 170 N.W.2d 608, 615-16 (Iowa 1969). We have also held that the Miranda requirement is inapplicable. State v. Collins, 236 N.W.2d 376, 378 (Iowa 1975), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 948, 96 S.Ct. 3166, 49 L.Ed.2d 1184 (1976). See also Weaver v. Gill, 633 F.2d 737 (6th Cir.1980) (per curiam). The expert's conclusion of sanity or insanity in his report is not within the attorney-client privilege because intended confidentiality is lacking. State v. Tensley, 249 N.W.2d 659, 661-62 (Iowa 1977). We were not required to decide in Tensley whether the defendant's detailed statements to the psychiatrist were initially within the privilege because we held, on the basis of waiver, that the State could cross-examine regarding those statements after the expert testified as to favorable aspects of them.

We recently held that a doctor cannot establish the confidentiality requirement with a patient, giving rise to the doctor-patient privilege, when the examination is under a court order; and that in addition a defendant waives the doctor-patient privilege when he gives notice of the defense of insanity or diminished responsibility. State v. Cole, 295 N.W.2d 29, 33-35 (Iowa 1980). In Cole we also pointed out, "We have not addressed the possible constitutional implications in a forced disclosure of doctor-patient communications, which have not been raised. Issues of constitutional proportion might arise, for example, if a patient's record, including details of the current or prior crimes, is sought to be used by the prosecution in its case in chief.... A defendant's fifth-amendment rights would obviously be involved.... We point out these constitutional issues to contrast them to the statutory privilege with which we are dealing in this case and to establish parameters of the waiver rule announced herein. The constitutional issues must remain to be resolved as they arise." Id. at 36.

Finally, we had the admissibility question in the context of postconviction proceedings in Snethen v. State, 308 N.W.2d 11 (Iowa 1981). Snethen challenged the competency of the attorney who served him at the criminal trial. He claimed inter alia that the attorney did not object to testimony by the expert at that trial as to conversations and statements by the defendant, contrary to ...