Billiot v. State, 91-KA-00862-SCT

Citation655 So.2d 1
Decision Date16 February 1995
Docket NumberNo. 91-KA-00862-SCT,91-KA-00862-SCT
PartiesJames E. BILLIOT v. STATE of Mississippi.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court

John C. Henegan, Butler Snow O'Mara Stevens & Cannada, L. Lee Tyner, Jr., Butler Snow Firm, Jackson, Bruce H. Hanley, Minneapolis, MN, for appellant.

Michael C. Moore, Atty. Gen., Marvin L. White, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Charlene R. Pierce, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Before DAN M. LEE, P.J., and SULLIVAN and SMITH, JJ.

SULLIVAN, Justice, for the Court:

James E. Billiot (Billiot) was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in the Circuit Court of Harrison County. The court entered judgment and sentence on December 2, 1982. His appeal of that conviction and sentence was unsuccessful. Billiot v. State, 454 So.2d 445 (1984). Billiot's Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi was held in abeyance pending Billiot's pursuit of all state remedies on the issue of his present insanity.

Billiot timely filed and this Court granted his Application for Leave to File a Motion for Post-Conviction Relief. Billiot v. State, 515 So.2d 1234 (Miss.1987). This Court held that The trial court held a competency hearing beginning November 14, 1988. The court denied Billiot's Motion, finding him competent to be executed pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 99-19-57(2)(b), and the United States Supreme Court decision, Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399, 106 S.Ct. 2595, 91 L.Ed.2d 335 (1986). The trial court denied his post-trial motions, and Billiot appealed to this Court. He presents the following issues for our review:

Billiot was entitled to an evidentiary hearing to determine whether or not he is competent to be executed. In accordance with that decision, Billiot filed a Motion to Vacate, Set Aside, Suspend, or Correct Judgment and Sentence of Death on February 17, 1988.

I. WHETHER BILLIOT IS ENTITLED TO DE NOVO REVIEW ON APPEAL OF THE DENIAL OF POST-CONVICTION RELIEF?
II. WHETHER THE EVIDENCE SUPPORTS THE FINDING THAT BILLIOT IS COMPETENT TO BE EXECUTED?

A. Whether the trial court made erroneous findings?

B. Whether the state's expert testimony was irrelevant and incompetent; the opinions were too remote in time, and whether they were based on interviews done while Billiot was under the influence of anti-psychotic drugs administered without his consent?

III. WHETHER THE EVIDENCE WAS EXAMINED UNDER INCORRECT LEGAL STANDARDS?

A. Whether the trial court erred in applying a legal presumption that Billiot is competent to be executed?

B. Whether Billiot presented sufficient evidence to shift the burden of proof to the state?

C. Whether the trial court's interpretation of Sec. 99-19-57(2)(b) is constitutional error?

IV. WHETHER THE STATE VIOLATED BILLIOT'S RIGHTS TO DUE PROCESS OF LAW?

A. Whether the use of drugs without having first advised his hearing attorneys and without Billiot's consent violates his due process rights?

B. Whether use of the drugs impermissibly taints evidence relied on by the factfinder?

C. Whether the use of drugs impermissibly restricts the adversarial system essential to due process?

D. Whether the use of drugs undermines the integrity of the factfinding process because of its temporal and mercurial impact on Billiot?

E. Whether the state's procedure for determining Billiot's competence was inadequate in three ways?

V. WHETHER CHEMICALLY INDUCING SANITY TO EXECUTE BILLIOT CONSTITUTES CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT?

A. Whether treating Billiot with anti-psychotic drugs in preparation for his hearing is cruel and unusual punishment because it forces him to choose between insanity and death?

B. Whether chemically inducing sanity converts otherwise legitimate medical treatment into an element of the state's punishment?

C. Whether the act of chemically inducing sanity as a step towards executing an otherwise insane prisoner punishes Billiot more severely than others who are convicted of the same crime and receive the same sentence?

D. Whether chemically inducing competence to execute the Death Row insane places treating physicians in the position of executioner rather than healer?

E. Whether chemically inducing competence to execute insane capital offenders leads to the death of individuals who were traditionally not executed?

VI. WHETHER THE EXECUTION OF BILLIOT, WHO HAS BEEN REPEATEDLY DIAGNOSED AS A CHRONIC PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIC, IS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT?
VII. WHETHER MISS.CODE ANN. Sec. 99-19-57(2)(a) CONSTITUTES CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT?
STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

The hearing to determine Billiot's competency to be executed was held on November 14 and 15, 1988. Billiot first called Dr. Donald Guild (Dr. Guild) as an adverse witness. Dr. Guild testified that he is a psychiatrist and was retained to examine Billiot in March, 1988, by Marvin White, assistant to the Attorney General. Dr. Guild examined Billiot on March 22, 1988, along with Dr. Charlton Stanley, a psychologist, approximately eight months prior to the competency hearing. Dr. Guild never made a definitive diagnosis, but stated that he did find that Billiot was not psychotic which would therefore exclude a finding of paranoid schizophrenia.

Dr. Guild found that Billiot, at the time of his examination on March 22, 1988, was in touch with reality--without psychosis, and stated that "[i]t means that he is not crazy now. It does not mean that he could not have been crazy in the past or in the future." He stated that Billiot was not a paranoid schizophrenic, but that he did meet the criteria for anti-social personality disorder. Dr. Guild determined that Billiot was competent to be executed. He testified as to certain criteria he relied on to make that determination:

One, does he know what he's facing? Does he know why he's seeing me? Does he know the purpose of the hearing? Can he communicate with his attorney effectively in the hearing, for whatever purpose it is? Does he know he's been convicted? Does he know what he's been convicted of? Does he have an understanding of his legal defense and recourses? Does he understand that he's gonna be executed and the finality of death? Does he understand the reason that he's being executed, the reason that he was sentenced? Does he have a comprehension of that? Does he have a comprehension of the facts or an ability to comprehend any facts that might save him, that might mitigate or change his status?

While Dr. Guild maintained that Billiot met the criteria for competency in March, 1988, he stated that competency is time dependent, and that "a man can be competent one time and then three months later, it's very possible that he will become incompetent."

Dr. Charlton S. Stanley (Dr. Stanley), who examined Billiot along with Dr. Guild on March 22, 1988, was also called by Billiot as an adverse witness. Like Dr. Guild, Dr. Stanley was contacted by the Attorney General's Office. Dr. Stanley is a psychologist, and has previously rendered opinions as to the competency of certain individuals to be executed: Connie Ray Evans, Jimmy Lee Gray and Earl Johnson. He stated that he found them to be competent to be executed.

Dr. Stanley relied on Billiot's prior history, his interview of Billiot conducted along with Dr. Guild, Ford v. Wainwright, and the relevant Mississippi statute, to make a finding as to Billiot's competency. In order to be competent to be executed, Dr. Stanley stated:

[Y]ou've got to be able to understand that you've been charged with a capital crime. That you are liable to execution. That you have to understand that a death sentence means that; that you are to be killed. And you are to understand the finality of that; that you can't have some sort of crazy idea that they can't kill you. You have to understand the purpose for which society deems your death necessary. That's paraphrasing, but I think that hits the--the major points. And if, because of some delusional or insane belief system that you can't meet those criteria, then you would not be competent to be executed. And--oh, yeah. You've got to be able--if you think of a mitigating ... circumstance at the last minute that you can communicate effectively with your attorney or someone. For an example would be to remember a witness at the last moment that ... says that you didn't do it. I think I hit them all.

The March 22, 1988 interview with Billiot was the only time Dr. Stanley examined him. He found Billiot competent to be executed. He agreed with Dr. Guild that competency is perishable.

Next, Billiot called Dr. Robert L. McKinley (Dr. McKinley) to testify. Dr. McKinley Dr. McKinley next saw Billiot on February 17, 1988, again at the request of Dr. Whelan, for evaluation and the possible need for medication. This time, Dr. McKinley prescribed the drug Trilafon for Billiot. He testified that while there are some differences chemically between Mellaril and Trilafon, they actually come from the same group of drugs known by the generic name of phenothiazine. They are both anti-psychotic, anti-schizophrenic medication.

                is a psychiatrist who, among other things, worked as a consulting psychiatrist at Parchman in 1981, and again from 1985-88.  While at Parchman, Dr. McKinley examined Billiot and diagnosed him as having chronic paranoid schizophrenic disorder.  In his report, Dr. McKinley said:  "He definitely has beyond the shadow of a doubt a chronic schizophrenic disorder."   That was his opinion on January 12, 1987, and was the second time he had seen Billiot.  At the request of Dr. Michael Whelan (Clinical Director of the Department of Psychiatry at Parchman), Dr. McKinley examined Billiot and prescribed Mellaril, an anti-psychotic drug, for him.  Billiot had also requested Mellaril
                

Dr. McKinley and Billiot discussed the medication prior to Dr. McKinley prescribing Trilafon for him. Billiot told him he needed something to calm down his nerves, and...

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    • United States
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    ...used by the trial court and held that the evidence presented there was sufficient to support that court's conclusion. Billiot v. State, 655 So.2d 1, 12-15 (Miss.1995). The court rejected arguments attacking both the procedure by which the trial court reached its decision and its interpretat......
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