Speedy v. Wyrick, 83-2506

• Decision Date: 15 November 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-2506,83-2506
• Citation: 748 F.2d 481
• Parties: Bobby Ray SPEEDY, Appellant, v. Donald W. WYRICK, Warden, Missouri State Penitentiary, Jefferson City, Missouri and John Ashcroft, Attorney General, State of Missouri, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 481

748 F.2d 481

Bobby Ray SPEEDY, Appellant, v. Donald W. WYRICK, Warden, Missouri State Penitentiary Jefferson City, Missouri and John Ashcroft Attorney General, State of Missouri, Appellees.

No. 83-2506.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted June 13, 1984.

Decided Nov. 15, 1984.

Brian S. Riepen, St. Louis, Mo., for appellant.

Rosalynn Van Heest, Jefferson City, Mo., for appellees.

Before ROSS, Circuit Judge, HENLEY, Senior Circuit Judge, and BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

On June 25, 1973, Bobby Ray Speedy pled not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease to the shotgun murders of his ex-wife's boyfriend and another man. On November 8, 1973, Speedy was convicted of both murders by a jury in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, Missouri. Speedy appealed his conviction in the Missouri courts on several grounds, one of which was the claim that he was denied due process by the failure of the trial court to raise sua sponte the issue of Speedy's competency to stand trial. After exhausting his remedies in the Missouri courts, Speedy filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on September 9, 1981. The District Court dismissed the petition on March 9, 1982. This Court reversed the dismissal and remanded the case for an evidentiary hearing on the question of whether the trial court should have raised sua sponte the issue of Speedy's competency. Speedy v. Wyrick, 702 F.2d 723 (8th Cir.1983). The District Court ¹ then conducted an evidentiary hearing, found that there was not substantial evidence raising a reasonable doubt as to Speedy's competence at the time of trial, and denied Speedy's petition. Speedy appeals from the decision of the District Court.

I.

The events leading up to the murders for which Speedy was convicted are not in dispute. Speedy married Judy Speedy in 1954. He became an elementary school teacher for the Hazelwood school district around 1965 and was described by friends and colleagues as a cheerful person and a very good teacher. Though the Speedys were divorced in May 1972, largely due to Mr. Speedy's infidelity, Judy Speedy characterized the divorce as friendly. Both Judy and Bobby Speedy became involved with other persons.

Speedy's ex-wife and friends began to notice a change in him shortly after the divorce. He became depressed and despondent. Two months after the divorce, Speedy went to his ex-wife's house while she was gone and ripped or smashed everything that was hers. Speedy again visited his ex-wife during Christmas, grabbed her hands, and caused her to scratch his face and beat him about the head with an ashtray. A week later, Speedy appeared at her house again, held a gun to his son's head, and threatened to kill him, but then put down the gun and sat down to watch television. Judy Speedy took Speedy to see psychiatrists several times. She also talked to a lawyer about having Speedy committed, but was told she probably could not succeed.

Speedy's girlfriend also worried about his increasingly strange behavior. Speedy repeatedly threatened suicide, had beaten her both with his hands and a gun, and had broken his wrist by punching a wall. Other teachers at the school started to worry about Speedy when he began to break down and cry in front of his sixth grade class.

On March 10, 1973, Judy Speedy went to a dinner party at the apartment of her boyfriend, Gordon Meek. Speedy appeared on the balcony of the apartment with a shotgun. While Judy Speedy went to call the police, Speedy entered the apartment and shot and killed both Gordon Meek and Clark Brown.

Prior to trial, Speedy was examined by three different psychiatrists. Each psychiatrist submitted a written report before trial to the trial court. The defense psychiatrist, Dr. Blackman, interviewed Speedy a number of times. He concluded on May 1, 1973, after four interviews, that Speedy was suffering from a mental defect or disease in that his extreme degree of depression and suicidal preoccupation made it impossible for him to conform his behavior to the expectation of the law. Nevertheless, Dr. Blackman concluded that Speedy was probably competent to stand trial. The court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Bergmann, evaluated Speedy on July 2, 1973 and found that Speedy showed evidence of depression of psychotic intensity and was in urgent need of psychiatric treatment in a closed facility because of his suicidal tendencies. Dr. Bergmann did not address the issue of Speedy's competence to stand trial. The psychiatrist for the prosecution, Dr. Shuman, opined on July 30, 1973 that Speedy probably would be in a hospital receiving psychiatric therapy if he were a private patient and should get psychiatric care to clear up his severe depression. Nevertheless, Dr. Shuman stated that Speedy was not psychotic at the time of the shooting and that there was no evidence of the presence of any delusions, illusions, hallucinations, or the like. Dr. Shuman also stated that Speedy would be able to stand trial and could assist his attorney in his defense.

At trial, Speedy's attorney did not contest the fact that Speedy had fired the shots that killed Meek and Brown. He attempted instead to show that Speedy was not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease. To this end, his examination and cross-examination of witnesses, including Speedy's ex-wife, friends, fellow teachers, and acquaintances was devoted to presenting Speedy's irrational and bizarre behavior. Although Speedy's attorney repeatedly emphasized the oddness of Speedy's past behavior, he never moved for a competency hearing nor indicated that he had any difficulty in communicating with Speedy.

All three psychiatrists who submitted pre-trial reports testified at trial in connection with Speedy's insanity defense. None of the psychiatrists changed his diagnosis of Speedy in any material way from his pre-trial report. Dr. Bergmann testified that Speedy suffered from an affective disorder of psychotic intensity and was at times out of contact with reality. Dr. Blackman stated that Speedy was suffering from severe depression (though not necessarily of a psychotic nature), but that he was probably psychotic at the time of the shooting and at times was totally oblivious to others and to events around him. Dr. Shuman felt that Speedy was not psychotic before, during, or after the shooting, but did state that Speedy was sick and suicidal. None of the psychiatrists testimonially addressed the issue of Speedy's competence to stand trial. The jury rejected Speedy's plea of not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease and convicted him.

At the habeas hearing, in addition to recounting much of what had transpired before the murder trial and the testimony given during the trial, witnesses described Speedy's behavior at trial. Three of Speedy's friends testified that Speedy had sat with his head in his hands, cried constantly, and generally acted as if he wasn't there. Habeas Transcript at 17-31. The court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Bergmann, testified at the habeas hearing that during Speedy's trial, Speedy seemed to be aware that he was in a courtroom and that there was a trial going on. Id. at 11. He added that at the trial Speedy was terribly depressed and his cognitive functions were probably impaired, but could not opine whether Speedy was capable of communicating with his attorney. Id. The prosecutor, Thomas Dittmeier, remembered Speedy as sitting with his head in his hands while the jury was in the courtroom, but as occasionally having "free dialogue" with the psychiatrists while the jury was out. Id. at 36. Dittmeier did not recall whether Speedy cried during the trial and couldn't "be positive" that Speedy had ever spoken with his attorney. Id. at 37. He also stated that there "wasn't any kind of bizarre behavior ... or anything out of the ordinary in this case" so that he "didn't feel ... we needed any hearings." Id. at 48. The state trial judge, Circuit Judge William Corrigan, stated that he was not sure he had read any of the psychiatric evaluations before the trial. He thought that Speedy seemed somewhat "sullen" in the courtroom and somewhat more outgoing outside the presence of the jury. Id. at 55. He couldn't recall whether Speedy ever spoke with his attorney but he did state that Speedy did nothing that would indicate that he was "violent, bizarre, crazy or anything else." Id. at 56.

II.

The conviction of an accused person while that person is legally incompetent violates due process. See Dusky v. United States, 362 U.S. 402, 80 S.Ct. 788, 4 L.Ed.2d 824 (1960); Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375, 86 S.Ct. 836, 15 L.Ed.2d 815 (1966). The Supreme Court has dealt with the issue of under what circumstances a trial court sua sponte must order a competency hearing in a criminal trial in Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375, 86 S.Ct. 836, 15 L.Ed.2d 815 (1966), and Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162, 95 S.Ct. 896, 43 L.Ed.2d 103 (1975). Neither case prescribes precise guidelines with respect to the nature or quantum of evidence necessary to require a court to order a competency hearing on its own motion. Rather, the Court held in both Robinson and Drope that the specific factual circumstances of each case raised a reasonable doubt as to competency and that under those circumstances the failure of the respective trial judges to order a competency hearing denied Robinson and Drope their right to a fair trial. Thus, any meaningful comparison of Speedy's case with the Robinson and Drope cases must begin with an analysis of the facts in those two cases.

In Pate v. Robinson, Robinson had been convicted of the shotgun murder of his wife. Robinson had a long history of irrational behavior, which included walking about in a daze, seeing animals such as snakes and elephants, trying to burn his wife's clothing, and, four years prior to killing his wife, shooting and killing...