Chestnut v. State

• Decision Date: 05 January 1989
• Docket Number: No. 70628,70628
• Citation: 14 Fla. L. Weekly 9,538 So.2d 820
• Parties: 14 Fla. L. Weekly 9 Adam Blaine CHESTNUT, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 820

538 So.2d 820

14 Fla. L. Weekly 9

Adam Blaine CHESTNUT, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.

No. 70628.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Jan. 5, 1989.

Rehearing Denied March 22, 1989.

Michael E. Allen, Public Defender and Paula A. Saunders, Asst. Public Defender, Tallahassee, for petitioner.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Royall P. Terry, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for respondent.

GRIMES, Justice.

This is a petition to review the First District Court of Appeal's decision in Chestnut v. State, 505 So.2d 1352 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987), which held that evidence of diminished mental capacity was inadmissible to negate the specific intent required to convict of first-degree premeditated murder. The district court certified the following question as one of great public importance:

Is evidence of an abnormal mental condition not constituting legal insanity admissible for the purpose of proving either that the accused could not or did not entertain the specific intent or state of mind essential to proof of the offense, in order to determine whether the crime charged, or a lesser degree thereof, was in fact committed?

Id. at 1356. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. We answer the question in the negative.

Chestnut and two codefendants, Jackie Bolesta and Gary German, robbed and killed the victim, Carl Brown, as the result of a robbery/murder scheme. German, the state's chief witness, was granted immunity and testified that Bolesta and Chestnut planned to rob and kill Brown on a trip to look at horses ostensibly being offered to Brown for sale. He testified that Bolesta demanded the victim's money while Chestnut held an axe handle over the victim and then struck him across the forehead. German further testified that Bolesta, armed with a machete, and Chestnut then took the victim "down the road." After the victim was killed, German and Chestnut hid the body in the woods. Chestnut was charged with both first-degree premeditated murder and felony murder.

In a statement to police officers, Chestnut admitted he was aware that Bolesta planned to rob the victim but denied any knowledge of a planned murder. Further, Chestnut claimed that Bolesta hit the victim in the head with the axe handle, robbed him, and murdered him. Chestnut admitted he concealed the body at Bolesta's order.

The state filed a pretrial motion seeking to prohibit anticipated testimony by defense witnesses who would present evidence concerning appellant's mental condition below that standard recognized by the M'Naghten rule. The trial court granted the state's motion finding that " 'absent an insanity plea, expert testimony as to mental status, especially when offered to bolster an affirmative defense would be improper in and of itself since it would only tend to confuse the jury.' " 505 So.2d at 1353.

At trial, counsel proffered expert testimony seeking to establish that Chestnut did not have the mental state required for premeditated first-degree murder. The proffered testimony revealed that Chestnut's intelligence was in the lowest five percent of the general population. Further, it showed that, several years earlier, appellant was kicked in the head by a bull, sustaining a fractured skull and brain damage which caused a posttraumatic seizure disorder that required medication. Chestnut also proffered evidence that he has diminished mental capacity with moderate impairment of verbal memory and has a passive personality which causes him to avoid physical confrontation; as a result, he is easily led and manipulated.

At the instruction conference, the trial court denied appellant's request for a special verdict form that would separate premeditated murder from felony murder. Chestnut was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for twenty-five years, the state declining to seek the death penalty.

The trial court's ruling was consistent with many previous Florida decisions. In Ezzell v. State, 88 So.2d 280 (Fla.1956), the defendant sought to introduce testimony which intended to show that he had a psychopathic personality so severe that it would prove he lacked the specific intent to commit first-degree premeditated murder. The defendant had previously withdrawn his insanity plea. In approving the rejecting of this evidence, we held: "Since the plea of insanity was out and there was no defense based on mental defects less than insanity, there was no reason for ... testimony or to labor the question." Id. at 282. We reached the same conclusion in Everett v. State, 97 So.2d 241 (Fla.1957), cert. denied, 355 U.S. 941, 78 S.Ct. 432, 2 L.Ed.2d 422 (1958). There, the defendant had pled not guilty by reason of insanity to a charge of first-degree murder. On appeal, this Court rejected the contention that the trial court erred in refusing to give an instruction that the defendant's mental condition could be considered by the jury in deciding whether he was capable of forming a premeditated design even though he was not found insane.

Similarly, in Tremain v. State, 336 So.2d 705, 706 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976), cert. denied, 348 So.2d 954 (Fla.1977), the Fourth District Court of Appeal addressed the issue of "whether testimony regarding the mental state of a defendant in a criminal case is admissible in the absence of a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity." That court answered the question in the negative and said:

It is our opinion that to allow expert testimony as to mental state in the absence of an insanity plea would confuse and create immaterial issues. If permitted, such experts could explain and justify criminal conduct. As lay people we could guess that almost everyone who commits crimes against society must have some psychiatric or psychological problem. However, the test continues to be legal insanity as defined and not otherwise, and the court and jury should not be subjected to testimony as to mental flaws and justifications where the defendant knew the difference between right and wrong at the time of the crime.

Id. at 707-08. Accord Zeigler v. State, 402 So.2d 365 (Fla.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1035, 102 S.Ct. 1739, 72 L.Ed.2d 153 (1982); Bradshaw v. State, 353 So.2d 188 (Fla. 2d DCA 1977). As recently as 1987, this Court held that evidence of mental retardation was inadmissible during the guilt phase of a first-degree murder case in the absence of a defense of insanity. Kight v. State, 512 So.2d 922 (Fla.1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 929, 108 S.Ct. 1100, 99 L.Ed.2d 262 (1988).

The only departure from this line of authority is found in Gurganus v. State, 451 So.2d 817 (Fla.1984), in which it was said that "evidence of any condition relating to the accused's ability to perform a specific intent" is relevant. However, this statement was obiter dictum because that issue was not before the Court. Gurganus simply reaffirmed the long-standing rule in Florida that evidence of voluntary intoxication is admissible in cases involving specific intent. Accord Garner v. State, 28 Fla. 113, 9 So. 835 (1891). Most states follow the same rule, although a few of them decline to permit evidence of involuntary intoxication as a defense even to specific intent crimes. See Annot., Modern Status of the Rules as to Voluntary Intoxication as Defense to Criminal Charge, 8 A.L.R.3d 1236, at § 3[a] (1966).

The issue presented by this case is not a new one. In his article entitled "Psychiatric Evidence in Criminal Cases for Purposes Other Than the Defense of Insanity," Professor Lewin explains:

Partial responsibility has been recognized for at least 100 years but it was not until the late 1950's that the Supreme Court of California in a series of decisions promulgated the modern concept and excited the imaginations of forensic psychiatrists, behavioral scientists and related scholars. Simply stated, the theory is that if because of mental disease or defect a defendant cannot form the specific state of mind required as an essential element of a crime, he may be convicted only of a lower grade of the offense not requiring that particular mental element. For example, if D is charged with the premeditated slaying of V, partial responsibility would enable a psychiatrist to testify that a mental disease interfered with D's capacity to formulate a plan. Thus a jury could find that D acted impulsively and without premeditation and therefore find D guilty of a lesser grade of homicide. The defense is thus available to reduce first degree murder requiring the specific intent elements of deliberation, premeditation and intent to kill to second degree murder, or even to manslaughter. Although generally applied to first degree murder cases, it is in theory applicable to any crime requiring proof of a specific intent, such as larceny or robbery.

26 Syracuse L.Rev. 1051, 1054-55 (1975) (footnotes omitted).

Differing terminology has sometimes clouded an understanding of the defense, as explained in Muench v. Israel, 715 F.2d 1124, 1142-43 (7th Cir.1983), cert. denied sub nom. Worthing v. Israel, 467 U.S. 1228, 104 S.Ct. 2682, 81 L.Ed.2d 878 (1984):

Petitioners, of course, claim they are not attempting to impose upon Wisconsin what they call a "diminished responsibility defense," thereby attempting to capitalize on the somewhat misleading nature of that particular label for the doctrine. A distinction can be drawn between the theory advanced by petitioners--admitting evidence of mental illness which is explicitly tied (at least grammatically) to the specific mens rea at issue, and a doctrine which might accurately be called diminished responsibility--admitting evidence of mental illness as a vague and general mitigating factor. See Arenella, The Diminished Capacity and Diminished Responsibility Defenses: Two Children of a Doomed Marriage, 77 Colum.L.Rev. 827 (1977). However, the courts have used the labels diminished responsibility, diminished capacity, and other nomenclature merely as...