Edwards v. State

• Decision Date: 16 March 1983
• Docket Number: No. 53800,53800
• Parties: Hezekiah EDWARDS v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 84

441 So.2d 84

Hezekiah EDWARDS v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 53800.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 16, 1983.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 14, 1983.

Per Curiam

Stanfield & Holderfield, Percy S. Stanfield, Jr., Merrida P. Coxwell, Jr., Jackson, for appellant.

Bill Allain, Atty. Gen. by Catherine Walker Underwood, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

En banc.

PRATHER, Justice, for the Court:

Hezekiah Edwards was indicted for capital murder after the shooting death of a Jackson police officer. At the conclusion of the guilt-finding phase of the bifurcated trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. Thereafter, the jury also determined that there were two statutory aggravating circumstances which outweighed any mitigating circumstances. ¹ Consequently, the jury found that the defendant should suffer the penalty of death. Finally, the lower court judge held that Edwards was an habitual criminal. ² As a result of these determinations, the Circuit Court for the First Judicial District of Hinds County sentenced Edwards to the penalty of death.

On appeal, Edwards raises four (4) assignments of error as follows:

(1) The jury's verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the law and evidence on the issue of appellant's insanity.

(2) The appellant was denied due process and a fair trial by improper and prejudicial statements made by the District Attorney.

(3) The death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

(4) The appellants' Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated by the trial court's granting of statutory instruction (5)(h) contained in section 99-19-101 of the Mississippi Code Annotated (Supp.1982).

FACTS

On April 13, 1981, around 11:00 p.m., Officers Hickman and Brewer were called by radio to investigate an incident involving an armed man on Lynch Street. The officers then drove their patrol car up to the sidewalk on the 900 block of Lynch Street in front of Alexander's Cafe. When Officer Brewer stopped the car, the officers observed that one black male was sitting on a metal folding chair just inside the door at Alexander's Cafe. As the officers exited their car, the black male said: "I'm the night watchman. I'm just getting some air." Officer Hickman then replied: "Do you have a shotgun in there?" Immediately, the black male stood up as he picked up Both officers responded to the incident by shooting at the black male, injuring him in the shoulder. Meanwhile, Officers Paxton and Iles had arrived on the scene to aid Brewer and Hickman. While Paxton shut the cafe door, Brewer and Isles pulled Hickman into the front entrance of the Old Night Train Lounge.

a shotgun and fired two (2) shots in rapid succession at Officer Hickman.

Hezekiah Edwards walked out of Alexander's Cafe, with his hands raised and his shoulder bloodied. He stated: "Police, don't shoot. The man doing all the shooting just went up through the loft." When the officers searched the cafe, no one else was found and there were no other exits from the cafe. Officer Brewer stated that Edwards was the man who shot Hickman.

Officer Hickman was found dead on arrival at the hospital. In the opinion of Dr. Michael G. Connor, a pathologist who performed the autopsy, the victim lost consciousness within a matter of seconds, and died no later than five (5) minutes after being shot. The autopsy revealed 286 pellet wounds to the hip region and upper back.

Following a motion filed by the State, the circuit court ordered Edwards to be transferred on April 19, 1981 to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield. While there, he was subjected to a battery of psychological tests to resolve any questions concerning his capacity to stand trial and his criminal responsibility under the M'Naghten Rule. On November 10, 1981, the Court also ordered a psychiatrist at the University Medical Center to examine Edwards' mental condition. It was the unanimous conclusion of all of these experts that, while he was definitely suffering several emotional disorders, Edwards knew right from wrong at the time of the murder. [The expert's testimony will be reviewed in detail in the discussion below].

GUILT PHASE

I.

The crucial issue to be resolved in this case is whether the jury verdict on the insanity issue ³ was against the weight of the evidence. For several years, our jurisdiction has chosen to apply the M'Naghten Rule as the basic step in resolving this issue. Laney v. State, 421 So.2d 1216 (Miss.1982); Harvey v. State, 207 So.2d 108 (Miss.1968); Cunningham v. State, 56 Miss. 269 (1879). The rule is stated as follows:

[T]o establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong. (R. Perkins, Criminal Law 859 (2d ed. 1969) (quoting from M'Naghten's Case, 10 Clark & F. 200, 210, 8 Eng.Rep. 718, 722 (1843)).

In applying this rule, there is a presumption that the accused is sane; and therefore, the burden is initially on the defendant to introduce evidence creating a reasonable doubt of his sanity. Herron v. State, 287 So.2d 759 (Miss.1974); Ford v. State, 73 Miss. 734, 19 So. 665 (1896). However, once the defendant has overcome this initial burden, it is the burden of the state to present sufficient evidence to prove the defendant's sanity beyond a reasonable doubt. Lias v. State, 362 So.2d 198 (Miss.1978); Myrick v. State, 290 So.2d 259 (Miss.1974). Expert witnesses are frequently used, as well as lay witnesses, to state their In the instant case, there was a great variety of psychological and psychiatric evidence pertaining to Edwards' sanity, including past medical records. The records reflected the appellant's mental history from 1975 through August of 1980.

opinions of the accused's mental state with regard to the M'Naghten Rule. Such opinions must be based on personal knowledge, and the jury is not bound to accept the conclusions of any expert. Hollins v. State, 340 So.2d 438 (Miss.1976); Smith v. State, 245 So.2d 583 (Miss.1971).

Beginning chronologically, Edwards was first diagnosed by Dr. James W. Doolos, a psychiatrist, and Dr. Andrew T. Pickens, the staff psychiatrist at the federal penitentiary at Springfield, Missouri. Dr. Pickens' diagnosis of the appellant on March 18, 1975 was "chronic paranoid schizophrenia in partial remission with prominent anxiety features." On June 15, 1976, Dr. Doolos also diagnosed Edwards as suffering from chronic paranoid schizophrenia. While under these doctors' care, Edwards was treated with such drugs as prolixin, cogentin and valium. Edwards was eventually discharged after treatment for two (2) years at the Springfield Medical Center as a chronic schizophrenic in partial remission with medication.

On June 24, 1976, the appellant was examined at the Mississippi State Hospital by Dr. Dave Davidson. His diagnosis was: "This patient with the diagnosis of paranoia schizophrenia does not appear grossly psychotic at the present time.... He's being given a prescription for stelazine ten milligrams twice a day. The prognosis is guarded."

Again in 1980, Doctors Deborah E. Rogers and Mary E. Brown diagnosed Edwards as a paranoid schizophrenic and he was committed to Whitfield pursuant to court order. Edwards had previously been committed to Whitfield in 1966, and he had two other family members who had also been committed there. While at Whitfield on the latter occasion, Dr. Billy Graham, a staff psychiatrist, diagnosed Edwards as suffering from schizophrenia, paranoid type. Dr. Graham treated the appellant with prolixin and also gave a guarded prognosis. Edwards was eventually discharged from Whitfield in 1980. Apparently, Edwards left the hospital without permission, but the staff made no effort to bring him back. There was no reason given for the discharge.

The following is an example of the type of feelings the appellant had while voluntarily committed in 1976:

A. Feels that people are out to get him. Tells the story that his brother raped his girl and when his son grew up, they came looking for him. He said his nephews did not--didn't know him from anybody else and he was afraid they might jump on him. He stays scared all the time.

Q. All right. And the attached history from the Federal Prison in Springfield, Missouri was that the inmates were out to kill him, was it not?

A. Right.

Several lay witnesses who knew Edwards also testified that he was indeed "off," "weird," or "crazy." Albert Hill was the individual who alerted others that Edwards was armed and shooting a rifle on Lynch Street. He testified that Edwards told him he was carrying a shotgun because: "Cuz, these niggers been messin over me and I gonna get them." The victim was white.

In contrast to the above evidence, the state offered four (4) expert witnesses who had recently examined the appellant. Each expert testified that in his opinion, Edwards knew the difference between right and wrong and appreciated the nature and quality of his actions at the time of the crime.

Dr. Charlton S. Stanley, a forensic psychologist, performed a battery of psychological examinations on Edwards at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield. Stanley testified that Edwards was administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test, which is a test of intelligence; the Rorschach Ink Blot Technique Test, which is a personality test; the Sentence Completion Form, which is a handwritten personality test; and the Human Figure Drawings Test. Dr. Stanley Stanley testified that the Wechsler test revealed Edwards' I.Q. to be 83, a score which is considered to be a little below average but not retarded. The Rorschach Ink Blot Test indicated that Edwards was guarded and cautious, impulsive, immature,...