U.S. v. Fratus, 75--3186

• Decision Date: 21 April 1976
• Docket Number: No. 75--3186,75--3186
• Citation: 530 F.2d 644
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John Weston FRATUS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 644

530 F.2d 644

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John Weston FRATUS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 75--3186.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

April 21, 1976.

Theodore Klein, Miami, Fla. (Court-appointed), for defendant-appellant.

Robert W. Rust, U.S. Atty., Don R. Boswell, Michael P. Sullivan, Asst. U.S. Attys., Miami, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before BROWN, Chief Judge, TUTTLE and GEE, Circuit Judges:

TUTTLE, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and (d), for bank robbery with a dangerous weapon. Following his indictment, appellant Fratus entered a plea of not guilty, and counsel was appointed for him. Upon the district court's determination that Fratus was competent to stand trial, the case proceeded to trial and a jury rejected his insanity defense, returning a verdict of guilty as to both counts. The district court sentenced appellant to twenty years' imprisonment, and this appeal followed. Appellant raises a number of issues concerning the validity of the proceedings in the district court, all of which bear in some way on his insanity defense. After careful consideration of appellant's claims and the evidence in the record, we affirm his conviction.

I. THE COMPETENCY HEARING ISSUES

Apellant has challenged the district court's finding that he was competent to stand trial, as well as the propriety of the court's first two orders committing appellant to the custody of the Springfield Medical Center 'until he becomes mentally competent.' A brief summary of the pretrial competency proceedings is necessary at this point in order to understand and evaluate these issues.

On October 15, 1974, in response to a motion by defense counsel, the district court ordered appellant examined by a court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Jarrett, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4244. ¹ Dr. Jarrett's report formed the basis of the district court's October 21, 1974 order adjudicating appellant incompetent to stand trial, committing him to the custody of officials at the federal medical center until he became competent, and ordering that institution to furnish the court with a statement of his progress toward competency. In February, both defense and government counsel presented motions to the district court requesting a second psychiatric examination of appellant, and these motions were granted. Appellant was examined by Dr. Albert Jaslow, and on the basis of this second examination another competency hearing was held by the court on February 26, 1975, resulting again in an adjudication of incompetency and appellant's recommitment to the medical center for further treatment.

Upon a defense motion on June 11, 1975, and following receipt of the psychiatric reports from Springfield, the district court ordered a further examination to determine appellant's mental condition. At a competency hearing on June 23, 1975, the district court heard expert testimony from Dr. David Tingle, a court-appointed psychiatrist, who stated that in his opinion appellant was incompetent to stand trial, and from Dr. William Clary, a psychiatric consultant to the Springfield Medical Center, who testified that appellant was competent and could cooperate with his counsel. At the close of the hearing, the district court ruled that appellant was competent to stand trial, and the case proceeded.

We examine first appellant's contention that the terms of the district court's first two orders committing him to Springfield until such time as he became competent directly violated the holding of this Court in United States v. Wood, 469 F.2d 676 (5th Cir. 1972), and of the Supreme Court in Jackson v. Indiana, 406 U.S. 715, 92 S.Ct. 1845, 32 L.Ed.2d 435 (1972). Both of those cases, however, held only that in the absence of a finding that the prisoner would probably endanger the officers, property, or other interests of the United States, he may be held under 18 U.S.C. § 4246 'only for a reasonable period of time necessary to determine whether there is a substantial chance of his attaining competency to stand trial in the foreseeable future.' Wood, supra, at 677, citing Jackson, supra. Here the district court coupled its commitment order with directions to the institution to furnish the court with periodic progress reports on appellant's condition, and used these reports to continue holding competency hearings in order to determine whether appellant was yet ready to stand trial. Under these circumstances, we find that such procedures afforded appellant adequate due process. Wood, supra, at 677.

Appellant's second argument with respect to the competency hearings conducted by the district court is that the court erred in finding him competent to stand trial. Appellant relies heavily on the fact that on two previous occasions, in October 1974 and February 1975, the court adjudicated him incompetent to stand trial, and that yet a third court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Tingle, found him incompetent in June 1975 at the time of the third and final competency hearing.

As stated by this Court on numerous previous occasions, the test for mental competency to stand trial under 18 U.S.C. § 4244 is whether a defendant has sufficient present ability to consult with his attorney with a reasonable degree of rational understanding, and whether he has a rational as well as a factual understanding of the proceedings against him. Dusky v. United States, 362 U.S. 402, 80 S.Ct. 788, 4 L.Ed.2d 824 (1960); United States v. Gray, 421 F.2d 316 (5th Cir. 1970). A district court's determination of competency in a particular case is a finding of fact which may not be set aside on review unless it is 'clearly arbitrary or unwarranted.' United States v. Gray, supra, 421 F.2d at 317. Thus the issue here is whether the district court's June 23, 1975 finding of competency was clearly erroneous.

In light of the conflicting but strong testimony given by the two psychiatric experts at the June 23rd hearing, we cannot conclude that the district court erred in adjudicating appellant competent to stand trial at that time. It is true that Dr. Tingle, the court-appointed psychiatrist, testified that in his opinion appellant was not malingering and that his condition was substantially unimproved from nine months previously, when Dr. Jarrett had examined him and found him to be mentally incompetent. Nevertheless, Dr. William Clary, a psychiatric consultant to the Springfield Medical Center where appellant had been undergoing treatment after commitment, testified that, based on an evaluation of appellant's medical records and background, and an in-depth staff discussion of appellant's problems conducted while he was at Springfield, appellant was quite competent to stand trial. Dr. Clary also testified that appellant was a malingerer and prone to faking incompetency. Given the existence of this expert testimony, this Court does not find that the district court's determination that appellant was competent to stand trial was either arbitrary or unwarranted. Gray, supra. Furthermore, we reject appellant's contention that the district court committed reversible error in failing to question defense counsel as to his evaluation of his client's ability to cooperate with him in the course of the trial. While such inquiries may be helpful in close factual situations, see, e.g., United States v. David, 167 U.S.App.D.C. 117, 511 F.2d 355 (1975), failure to make them here can hardly be said to have constituted reversible error.

II. SUBMISSION OF THE INSANITY ISSUE TO THE JURY

Appellant's second contention on appeal is that the district court committed reversible error in allowing the insanity issue to go to the jury. Specifically, he argues that the government failed to produce any evidence to contest one of the necessary elements of an insanity defense as defined in this Circuit, and that hence the district court should have directed a verdict of acquittal at the close of appellant's case.

There is no doubt that appellant raised the issue of his sanity at the time of the offense; consequently, the government had the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he was sane at the time of the alleged crime. Brock v. United States, 387 F.2d 254, 257 (5th Cir. 1967). This Court, however, has never empirically defined the amount of evidence necessary to constitute 'sufficiency' for purposes of submitting the issue of sanity to the jury, but instead has stated that each case must be decided on its own facts, and that the quantum and nature of proof the government must offer depends upon the quantum and nature of proof the defendant offers. Nagell v. United States, 392 F.2d 934, 937 (5th Cir. 1968).

The test for insanity in this Circuit is substantially the one proposed by the ALI in the Model Penal Code, and which has also been adopted by the Second, Fourth, and Seventh Circuits: ²

'(1) A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.

(2) As used in this Article, the terms 'mental disease or defect' do not include an abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise antisocial conduct.'

Blake v. United States, 407 F.2d 908, 916 (5th Cir. 1969) (En Banc). Thus, under Blake, once it has been established that the defendant is indeed suffering from a mental disease or defect, the remainder of the test is a disjunctive one--the defense must then prove either that the disease rendered the defendant incapable of appreciating the wrongfulness of his conduct, or that it rendered him incapable of conforming his conduct to the requirements of the law. The defense may choose to put only one of these latter 'capacity' elements into issue, or it...