U.S. v. Lyons

• Decision Date: 16 April 1984
• Docket Number: No. 82-3429,82-3429
• Citation: 731 F.2d 243
• Parties: 15 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 859 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert LYONS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 243

731 F.2d 243

15 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 859

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert LYONS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 82-3429.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

April 16, 1984.

Julian R. Murray, Jr., New Orleans, La., for defendant-appellant.

John P. Volz, U.S. Atty., Patrick J. Fanning, Harry W. McSherry, Asst. U.S. Attys., New Orleans, La., Sidney Glazer, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellee.

Donald N. Bersoff, Washington, D.C., for American Psychological Assoc., amicus curiae.

Richard P. Lynch, Director, American Bar Ass'n, Washington, D.C., Wallace D. Riley, President, American Bar Ass'n, Chicago, Ill., for American Bar Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Frank Maloney, Austin, Tex., for Nat. Assoc. of Crim. Defense Lawyers, amicus curiae.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before CLARK, Chief Judge, BROWN, GEE, RUBIN, GARZA, REAVLEY, POLITZ, TATE, JOHNSON, WILLIAMS, GARWOOD, JOLLY and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges ^*.

GEE, Circuit Judge:

Defendant Robert Lyons was indicted on twelve counts of knowingly and intentionally securing controlled narcotics by misrepresentation, fraud, deception and subterfuge in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 843(a)(3) (1976) and 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2 (1976). Before trial Lyons informed the Assistant United States Attorney that he intended to rely on a defense of insanity: that he had lacked substantial capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law because of drug addiction. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 12.2(a). Lyons proffered evidence ¹ that in 1978 he began to suffer from several painful ailments, that various narcotics were prescribed to be taken as needed for his pain, and that he became addicted to these drugs. He also offered to present expert witnesses who would testify that his drug addiction affected his brain both physiologically and psychologically and that as a result he lacked substantial capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.

In response to the government's motion in limine, the district court excluded any evidence of Lyon's drug addiction, apparently on the ground that such an addiction could not constitute a mental disease or defect sufficient to support an insanity defense. A panel of this Court reversed, holding that it was the jury's responsibility to decide whether involuntary drug addiction could constitute a mental disease or defect depriving Lyons of substantial capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. United States v. Lyons, 704 F.2d 743 (5th Cir.1983). We agreed to rehear the case en banc. Id. at 748. ²

I.

For the greater part of two decades our Circuit has followed the rule that a defendant is not to be held criminally responsible for conduct if, at the time of that conduct and as a result of mental disease or defect, he lacked substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. Blake v. United States, 407 F.2d 908, 916 (5th Cir.1969) (en banc).

Today the great weight of legal authority clearly supports the view that evidence of mere narcotics addiction, standing alone and without other physiological or psychological involvement, raises no issue of such a mental defect or disease as can serve as a basis for the insanity defense. Bailey v. United States, 386 F.2d 1, 3-4 (5th Cir.1967), cert. denied, 392 U.S. 946, 88 S.Ct. 2300, 20 L.Ed.2d 1408 (1968). Accord, United States v. Coffman, 567 F.2d 960, 963 (10th Cir.1977); United States v. Moore, 486 F.2d 1139, 1181 (D.C.Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 980, 94 S.Ct. 298, 38 L.Ed.2d 224 (1973); United States v. Stevens, 461 F.2d 317, 321 (7th Cir.1972); Gaskins v. United States, 410 F.2d 987, 989 (D.C.Cir.1967); Green v. United States, 383 F.2d 199, 201 (D.C.Cir.1967), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 961, 88 S.Ct. 1061, 19 L.Ed.2d 1158 (1968); United States v. Freeman, 357 F.2d 606, 625 (2d Cir.1966); Berry v. United States, 286 F.Supp. 816, 820 (E.D.Pa.1968), rev'd on other grounds, 412 F.2d 189 (3d Cir.1969). Cf. United States v. Romano, 482 F.2d 1183, 1196 (5th Cir.1973), cert. denied sub nom. Yassen v. United States, 414 U.S. 1129, 94 S.Ct. 866, 38 L.Ed.2d 753 (1974) (being involuntarily under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime is not a legal equivalent of insanity). See also Fingarette, Addiction and Criminal Responsibility, 84 Yale L.J. 413, 424-25 (1975) ("there is no consensus in the medical profession that addiction is a mental disease"). ³

There are a number of reasons why. In the first place, there is an element of reasoned choice when an addict knowingly acquires and uses drugs; he could instead have participated in an addiction treatment program. Moore, 486 F.2d at 1183 (opinion of Leventhal, J.). A person is not to be excused for offending "simply because he wanted to very, very badly." Bailey, 386 F.2d at 4. Second, since the defense of insanity is "essentially an acknowledgement on the part of society that because of mental disease or defect certain classes of wrongdoers are not properly the subjects of criminal punishment," Freeman, 357 F.2d at 625, it seems anomalous to immunize narcotics addicts from other criminal sanctions when Congress has decreed severe penalties for mere possession and sale of narcotics. Id. In addition, Congress has dealt with the problem of responsibility of narcotics addicts for their crimes by providing for civil commitment and treatment of addicts in lieu of prosecution or sentencing. Bailey, 386 F.2d at 4. See e.g., 18 U.S.C. Secs. 4251-4255 (1976); 28 U.S.C. Secs. 2901-2906 (1976).

Finally, what definition of "mental disease or defect" is to be employed by courts enforcing the criminal law is, in the final analysis, a question of legal, moral and policy--not of medical--judgment. ⁴ Among the most basic purposes of the criminal law is that of preventing a person from injuring others or, perhaps to a lesser degree, himself. This purpose and others appropriate to law enforcement are not necessarily served by an uncritical application of definitions developed with medical considerations of diagnosis and treatment foremost in mind. Cf. Powell v. Texas, 392 U.S. at 540-41, 88 S.Ct. at 2158-59 (Black, J., concurring). Indeed, it would be coincidental indeed should concepts deriving from such disparate sources correspond closely, one to the other. Thus it is, for example, that the law has not greatly concerned itself with medical opinion about such mental states as accompany the commission of crimes of passion or of those done while voluntarily intoxicated; whatever that opinion may be, policy considerations have been thought to forbid its cutting much of a figure in court.

Contravening the broad thrust of the authorities cited above, the panel opinion appears to suggest that "involuntary" drug addiction can constitute a "mental disease or defect" bearing on the defendant's criminal responsibility. 704 F.2d at 747. The panel believed itself bound to that rule by such a holding in United States v. Bass, 490 F.2d 846 (5th Cir.1974). In so concluding the panel acted with obvious reluctance but with fidelity to the principle that one panel of our court does not overrule another. Today, sitting en banc, we overrule Bass insofar as it may be read to hold that mere drug addiction, voluntary or involuntary, can be a mental disease for legal purposes. Insofar, however, as it countenanced the receipt of evidence of drug addiction in connection with Bass's genuine mental disease--chronic anxiety--to which it contributed, we find no fault with the opinion.

Although mere narcotics addiction is not itself to be acknowledged as a mental disease or defect, evidence of narcotics addiction has been received by some courts as evidence of such an underlying condition. Green v. United States, 383 F.2d 199, 201 (D.C.Cir.1967), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 961, 88 S.Ct. 1061, 19 L.Ed.2d 1158 (1968). In addition, if addiction has caused actual physical damage to the structures of a defendant's body, evidence of that addiction has been admitted to show any mental defect resulting from that damage. Cf. Brinkley v. United States, 498 F.2d 505, 511-12 (8th Cir.1974) (remanding to explore possible physiological and psychological effects of long term LSD use on appellant and whether these effects might amount to insanity).

We view the reasoning of such rulings as Green with profound misgivings. To us it seems to rest on the proposition that, assuming drug addiction itself is neither a mental disease nor a defect, yet the two are often to be found in association, so that an addicted person is more likely to suffer from some mental disorder than is one who is not addicted. ⁵ By a parity of reasoning, since combat veterans as a group are self-evidently more likely to have suffered the loss of a physical member than is the populace at large, evidence of whether a party is a combat veteran should be received on the issue whether he has lost a leg. Or, to take a less extreme example, since because of light skin pigmentation persons of Scandinavian ancestry are more subject to skin cancer than are others, the family tree of a suitor should be received in evidence when his skin cancer is at legal issue. The flaw in both illustrations seems evident: where evidence bearing directly on a legal question is available, that involving tangential matters, even though perhaps logically relevant in theory, is of small practical value. ⁶

Our review of numerous records over the course of years has revealed no dearth of experts ready and willing to testify squarely on the issue of insanity in criminal trials: direct evidence on the issue seems all but too readily available. Since this is so, receiving evidence of drug addiction in addition seems to us an exercise seldom likely to prove more probative than prejudicial in practice. See Rule 403, Federal Rules of...