Edwards v. Com.
| Decision Date | 29 July 1977 |
| Citation | 554 S.W.2d 380 |
| Parties | Charlotte Louise EDWARDS, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Aubrey Williams, Hancy Jones, III, Thomas L. Hogan, Louisville, for appellant.
Robert F. Stephens, Atty. Gen., Patrick B. Kimberlin, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Frankfort, for appellee.
This appeal results from a judgment of conviction entered upon a jury verdict finding the defendant guilty of murder, KRS 507.020, and sentencing her to 20 years' imprisonment. Six errors warranting reversal of this conviction are alleged to have been committed by the trial court.
On the morning of January 17, 1976, Maj. Thomas B. Basehart, a United States Army officer stationed at Fort Knox, accompanied his wife and two daughters to the Oxmoor Shopping Center in Louisville for a day of shopping. Desiring to purchase a birthday present for one of the daughters, they visited Thornbury's toy store where Mrs. Basehart noticed the appellant, Charlotte Louise Edwards, standing in an aisle. Mrs. Basehart pardoned herself as she passed the appellant, who stepped aside. The Baseharts soon left the toy store and proceeded through the mall, stopping at various establishments along the way, and ultimately reaching a sporting goods store some distance from Thornbury's approximately 45 minutes later. As they left this shop, one of the children pointed out to Mrs. Basehart that the appellant, whom she remembered from the toy store, was then sitting outside the sporting goods store on a bench. The family decided to place the purchases they had accumulated that morning in their car before resuming shopping, and so proceeded toward the mall's parking lot. The appellant followed them outside, and exclaiming "you took my child away", fired some five or six shots at the Baseharts, one of these striking Major Basehart and killing him almost immediately. She then silently dropped her pistol into her purse and calmly walked toward her car. Her escape was prevented by the efforts of Mrs. Basehart and two witnesses to the incident who, after struggling with the appellant, were able to hold her until police arrived. Testimony presented at trial indicated no member of the Basehart family had ever had contact with the appellant prior to that day.
The appellant relied upon the defense of insanity at her trial, presenting lay and medical testimony indicating that she had undergone a psychological transformation following the dismissal of a charge of racial discrimination which she had filed against her employer in 1971, resulting in her exhibiting increasingly bizarre behavior since that time. Testimony presented on her behalf further indicated she had twice been committed to mental hospitals pursuant to mental detention warrants procured by her husband, that she had been released from one such hospital only six weeks prior to the incident in question, and that she had been diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic by a psychiatrist in 1974. A clinical psychologist who interviewed the appellant three months after the crime also testified that, based on the tests administered on that occasion and the history obtained from her, the appellant was "grossly abnormal" on the day of the crime. The Commonwealth's lay and medical testimony in rebuttal of the appellant's proof of insanity indicated that the appellant's release from the mental hospital six weeks prior to the commission of the offense resulted from her being adjudged nondangerous to herself or others based on the testimony of two psychiatrists at a mental inquest hearing presided over by a judge of the Jefferson Circuit Court. Rebuttal testimony further indicated that during a 27-day period of psychiatric observation commencing approximately six weeks following the crime, no "overtly psychotic process" had been recognized, although the psychiatrists concerned indicated they felt the appellant to be then suffering from some mental illness "in general gross terms." 1
Appellant initially assigns as error the trial court's refusal to direct a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, contending she had proven herself insane by a preponderance of the evidence, had thereby shifted to the Commonwealth the burden of proving her sane, and that the Commonwealth had failed to sustain that burden. We disagree, however, not only because the burden of proving a defendant sane does not shift to the Commonwealth as suggested by the appellant's argument, but also because as we view the testimony presented herein, we feel it fails to relate the diminished mental capacity of the appellant perceived by the witnesses to the legal criteria for insanity established by KRS 504.020.
Where one chooses to rely upon insanity as a defense, the burden rests upon him to prove to the satisfaction of the jury that at the time the offense was committed, as a result of a mental disease or defect, he lacked substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law. KRS 504.020; also see Henderson v. Commonwealth, Ky., 507 S.W.2d 454 (1974). Thus, the presentation of evidence merely proving the defendant to be suffering from some form of mental illness at the time of the offense, without also proving him unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to resist his impulse to commit the illegal deed due to the perceived mental disease or defect, will not relieve him from the consequences of his criminal act. Newsome v. Commonwealth, Ky., 366 S.W.2d 174, 177 (1962). After carefully reviewing the testimony presented herein, we conclude it persuasively indicates the appellant to be a woman laboring under a mental disorder of some kind when psychiatrically examined following the commission of the offense. However, we also feel it completely fails to show that on the morning of January 17, 1976, a mental disease or defect had so reduced her mental state that she was unable either to appreciate the criminality of her acts or to resist the impulse to commit the crime. The evidence thus fails to establish the facts necessary for a defense of insanity, and no error can be recognized in the trial court's denial of a motion for a peremptory instruction. Although the foregoing discussion disposes of this allegation of error, we feel compelled to point out for the benefit of counsel that the introduction of proof of insanity by a defendant does not place a burden on the Commonwealth to prove him sane; rather, it entitles the defendant to an instruction to the jury that they may find him not guilty by reason of insanity, and thus properly makes the issue of insanity a matter for the jury's determination.
The appellant's second allegation of error concerns the trial court's refusal to offer to the jury her requested instruction that if they found her not guilty by reason of insanity, she would be admitted to an institution for treatment and care...
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