Com. v. Sheehan

• Decision Date: 11 December 1978
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. Richard Henry SHEEHAN.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 1115

383 N.E.2d 1115

376 Mass. 765

COMMONWEALTH v. Richard Henry SHEEHAN.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Essex.

Argued Sept. 13, 1978.

Decided Dec. 11, 1978.

Edward Berkin, Roxbury, for defendant.

Sandor I. Rabkin, Asst. Dist. Atty., for the Commonwealth.

Before HENNESSEY, C. J., and QUIRICO, BRAUCHER, KAPLAN and WILKINS, JJ.

WILKINS, Justice.

The defendant appealed from his conviction of robbery of a registered pharmacist; the Appeals Court affirmed the judgment (Commonwealth v. Sheehan, --- Mass.App. --- ^A, 370 N.E.2d 1021 (1977)); and we granted the defendant's application for further appellate review. Before this court, the defendant has focused his argument on his claim that the trial judge improperly excluded psychiatric testimony offered on his behalf.

The testimony of the psychiatrist, heard by the judge on voir dire and excluded, was offered to support the defendant's claims that because of his drug addiction (1) he was not criminally responsible for his conduct under the principles set forth in Commonwealth v. McHoul, 352 Mass. 544, 546-547, 226 N.E.2d 556 (1967), ¹ and (2) at the time of the crime, he lacked the necessary intent to warrant a robbery conviction. The evidence was properly excluded. We agree with the Appeals Court and affirm the conviction.

The jury could have found that on the evening of March 22, 1975, the defendant entered a drug store in Salem. He went to the counter from which drugs were sold and requested a pharmacist. When the pharmacist came, the defendant put a paper bag on the counter and ordered her to fill it with Class A and B drugs. He told her that he was "in a bad way." Summoned by a customer who had left the drug store, the police arrived and arrested the defendant. The defendant testified to his consumption of a considerable amount of drugs, including alcohol, during the winter of 1975, and particularly during the five days prior to his entry into the drug store. He testified that he had no memory of the events in the drug store preceding his arrest.

The defendant's psychiatric expert testified on voir dire that at the time of the crime the defendant was "blacked out" from drug addiction. The defendant was of a "passive dependent character with also a diagnosis of psychological drug dependence of 17 to 18 years' duration, with extreme incapacity to tolerate anxiety." He was addicted to narcotics and alcohol and was an extremely drug dependent person. The psychiatrist testified further that the defendant was not able to control his action of going into the drug store because he was under the influence of various drugs. She stated that drug dependency or drug addiction can be characterized as a mental disease or defect, and that the defendant was not sane at the time of the crime, according to Massachusetts law. She considered him unable to conform his behavior to the requirements of law because of the mental diseases of drug addiction and drug dependency. She characterized his consumption of drugs as involuntary because he lacked the will power to overcome his anxiety and dependence.

1. We reject the defendant's argument that drug addiction itself may qualify as a mental disease or defect which, along with other necessary elements, would warrant a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity under the standards of Commonwealth v. McHoul, 352 Mass. 544, 546-547, 226 N.E.2d 556 (1967). Drug addiction, standing alone, does not qualify as a mental disease or defect which would support a finding of a lack of criminal responsibility under the McHoul test. ²

If the normal consequences of drug addiction are to be accepted as a ground for avoidance of responsibility for criminal conduct, the Legislature is the appropriate body to make that determination. Although the Legislature has dealt with drug dependency and drug addiction in relation to criminal proceedings, it has not adopted the view that drug addiction absolves a defendant of responsibility for his criminal conduct. ³ Indeed, for all crimes other than drug offenses, the Legislature has adopted a procedure which calls for the sentencing of a drug dependent person in the normal course, with the possibility of drug treatment on the order of the judge and with the consent of the defendant. ⁴ G.L. c. 123, § 48. With this expression of public policy by the Legislature, we decline to adopt a general rule of law which absolves one from responsibility for criminal conduct based solely on the consequences of the voluntary use of drugs. Consequently, even if medical experts may undertake to characterize drug addiction in medical terms as a mental disease or defect, we reject drug addiction alone as qualifying as a mental disease or defect for the purpose of applying the McHoul test. ⁵

The essential consideration is not whether the medical profession characterizes drug addiction as a mental disease or defect but rather whether our society should relieve from criminal responsibility a drug addict who at the time of the commission of the crime was unable to conform his conduct to the requirements of law because of his addiction. There are circumstances, not involved in this case, in which a drug addict properly should be relieved of responsibility for criminal conduct. They exist where the defendant lacks criminal responsibility under the McHoul test. For example, if, as a result of a mental disease or defect, apart from his drug addiction, a defendant lacks substantial capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of law, he should not be barred from asserting his lack of criminal responsibility under the McHoul test merely because he happens to be a drug addict. See Model Penal Code § 2.08, Comment 4 (Tent. Draft No. 9, 1959). Also, if the consumption of drugs causes a mental disease or defect, apart from drug addiction itself, normally the defendant may rely on that mental disease or defect in support of his assertion of his lack of criminal responsibility, even if the defendant's drug consumption was voluntary. See, e. g., People v. Kelly, 10 Cal.3d 565, 576, 111 Cal.Rptr. 171, 516 P.2d 875 (1973); Brinkley v. United States, 498 F.2d 505, 511-512 (8th Cir. 1974). Of course, not every instance of an abnormal personality, drug-induced or not, constitutes sufficient evidence to require the Commonwealth to assume the burden of proving sanity beyond a reasonable doubt (see Commonwealth v. McInerney, --- Mass. ---, --- ^B, 365 N.E.2d 815 (1977); United States v. Kohlman, 469 F.2d 247, 250 (2d Cir. 1972)), and where the defendant voluntarily consumes drugs knowing that such consumption will cause a mental disease or defect, a finding of lack of criminal responsibility would not be warranted (see Kane v. United States, 399 F.2d 730, 733-736 (9th Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1057, 89 S.Ct. 698, 21 L.Ed.2d 699 (1969); Model Penal Code § 2.08(4) & (5) (Proposed Official Draft, 1962)).

Finally, it must be recalled that the McHoul standard requires that there be a causal connection between the claimed mental disease or defect and the defendant's substantial incapacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law. Commonwealth v. McGrath, 358 Mass. 314, 320, 264 N.E.2d 667 (1970). If the defendant's lack of substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law is solely the product of his voluntary consumption of drugs, he does not meet the McHoul test, even if he has a mental disease or defect. Id. In the year after our opinion in the McGrath case, we noted as overly favorable to the defendant a judge's charge which stated that the use of drugs would be involuntary (and verdicts of not guilty by reason of insanity would therefore be warranted under the McHoul test) if the defendant's incompetency resulted from the use of drugs which he consumed because of an uncontrollable addiction or drug dependency. Commonwealth v. Costa, 360 Mass. 177, 186, 274 N.E.2d 802 (1971). We did not say that drug addiction was a mental disease for purposes of the McHoul test, and we did not rule on the implication of the judge's charge that the use of drugs by one addicted to them was an involuntary use. We say at this time, however, that drug addiction plays no part in meeting the McHoul test unless there is a causal connection between the drug addiction and a mental disease or defect of the defendant. See United States v. Burnim, 576 F.2d 236, 237 (9th Cir. 1978). In addition, we reject drug addiction alone as an adequate justification for finding that a defendant's consumption of drugs was involuntary and thus his conduct somehow excusable. ⁶ See H. Fingarette, Addiction and Criminal Responsibility, 84 Yale L.J. 413, 443 (1975).

We decline to undertake a fuller discussion of drug consumption as a defense to a criminal charge. Courts have taken differing views of such defenses. See Annot., Drug Addiction or Related Mental State as Defense to Criminal Charge, 73 A.L.R.3d 16 (1976 & Supp.1978). We suspect that knowledge of the consequences of drug consumption on human behavior has not yet reached its full potential, and it is clear that, in many aspects, medical views differ. We prefer to deal with a claim of lack of criminal responsibility on the particular facts of individual cases. We thus proceed to do so as to this particular case.

The psychiatric witness's testimony rested on the erroneous assumption that severe drug addiction, characterized by a craving for drugs, would qualify as a mental disease or defect under the McHoul test. In the absence of an opinion that the defendant suffered from a mental disease or defect recognized under the McHoul test, the witness's opinion evidence concerning the defendant's inability at the time of the crime to control his actions or to conform his behavior to the requirements of law was inadmissible. Commonwealth v. Laliberty, --- Mass. ---, --- ^C, ...