Finger v. State

• Decision Date: 24 July 2001
• Docket Number: No. 32716.,32716.
• Citation: 27 P.3d 66,117 Nev. 548
• Parties: Frederick FINGER, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent.
• Court: Nevada Supreme Court

27 P.3d 66

117 Nev. 548

Frederick FINGER, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent.

No. 32716.

Supreme Court of Nevada.

July 24, 2001.

Morgan D. Harris, Public Defender, Howard S. Brooks, Deputy Public Defender, Clark County, for Appellant.

Frankie Sue Del Papa, Attorney General, Carson City, Stewart L. Bell, District Attorney, James Tufteland, Chief Deputy District Attorney, and Gregory D. Knapp, Deputy District Attorney, Clark County, for Respondent.

BEFORE THE COURT EN BANC.

OPINION

By the Court, BECKER, J.:

In April of 1996, appellant Frederick Finger was charged with one count of open murder with the use of a deadly weapon. Finger was accused of murdering his mother, Franziska Brassaw, by stabbing her in the head with a kitchen knife. Finger intended to assert legal insanity as a defense. However, at the time of his arraignment, the district court denied Finger's request to enter a plea of "not guilty by reason of insanity" as that plea had been abolished by the 1995 Nevada Legislature. Subsequently, Finger entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill to a charge of second-degree murder. The district court convicted Finger of second-degree murder and sentenced him to serve life in prison with minimum parole eligibility after ten years.

Finger challenges his conviction on constitutional grounds, alleging that the abolishment of insanity as an affirmative defense violates the 8th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution and Article 1, Sections 6 and 8(5), of the Nevada Constitution. Finger asserts that punishing an insane individual constitutes cruel and unusual punishment while prohibiting an accused from asserting a defense of legal insanity violates due process requirements.

While we conclude that neither the United States nor the Nevada Constitutions require that legal insanity be procedurally raised as an affirmative defense or by way of a plea of "not guilty by reason of insanity," both Constitutions prohibit an individual from being convicted of a criminal offense without possessing the requisite criminal intent to commit the crime. For the reasons discussed herein, we conclude that Nevada's current statutory scheme would permit an individual to be convicted of a criminal offense under circumstances where the individual lacked the mental capacity to form the applicable intent to commit the crime, a necessary element of the offense. Such a statutory scheme violates the due process clauses of the United States and Nevada Constitutions. In light of our conclusion that Nevada's scheme does not comport with due process, we need not address Finger's arguments regarding the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Because Finger was prohibited from raising the issue of legal insanity, we remand this matter to the district court with instructions to permit Finger to withdraw his plea of "guilty, but mentally ill," vacate the judgment of conviction and for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

FACTS

On April 10, 1996, at approximately 4:00 a.m., Jeff Jordan, a neighbor of Finger, woke to the sound of a woman screaming. A short time later, Finger pounded on Jordan's door while shouting "someone killed my mother! She's hurt real bad! I think she might be dead!" Jordan called 911 then got dressed and opened his door. Finger was not in sight. When the police arrived, Jordan noticed that Finger was now standing some distance down the block. Jordan pointed Finger out to the police. Police officers approached Finger who turned and ran away. The officers pursued and detained Finger. As the officers caught up with Finger, they noticed he was covered in blood. Prior to being detained, Finger announced that "someone beat my mother and killed her" and "the Mexican guy who lives in her house killed her." Because of the large amount of blood found on Finger as well as information received from Jordan, the officers wished to verify the safety of Brassaw or any other occupants inside Finger's residence. Jose Rivera, who shared occupancy of the residence with Finger and Brassaw, granted permission for the officers to enter the house. Upon entering the residence, police discovered Brassaw lying dead on the kitchen floor. Brassaw had been stabbed one time in the head with a kitchen knife, and had bled to death from the wound.

Officers interviewed another neighbor, Lawrence Collins, who related to the officers that he was awakened by talking outside his window. When he looked out the window, he observed Finger mumbling to himself. Collins told the police that he thought Finger said "I framed my mother" and that Finger was holding an object in his hand. Collins also led police to a bloodied kitchen knife that Collins found in his yard not far from the place where Finger had been standing.

Rivera was also interviewed. He told the police that he was sleeping when he was awakened by the sound of a fight. He opened the door to his room and saw Brassaw staggering as if injured. Rivera then barricaded himself in his room until the noises stopped. Rivera had no blood on his clothes.

Finger gave a voluntary statement to the police. In it he claimed that he heard his mother screaming and that Rivera was stabbing her. He tried to stop Rivera and that's how he ended up with the bloodied kitchen knife and the blood on his clothes. Based upon the witness statements, the lack of blood on Rivera's clothes, the amount of blood on Finger's clothes and his statement to detectives, Finger was arrested for the murder.

Finger has an extensive history of mental illness. He was first determined to be mentally ill in 1972 at the age of seventeen. Finger has been diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia, manic depressive disorder with homicidal and suicidal tendencies, intermittent explosive disorder and paranoia. Finger periodically suffers from visual and auditory hallucinations. In addition, Finger had a long history of violence and co-dependency with his mother and had been institutionalized in mental heath facilities several times due to delusions and attacks on his mother or other members of his family.

Upon interviewing Finger, it was immediately apparent to defense counsel that Finger was of questionable mental capacity. Counsel sought psychiatric evaluations. Two of the three evaluations concluded that Finger was unable to aid in his own defense. Based upon the evaluations, the district court committed Finger to the Lakes Crossing Center for the Criminally Insane until such time as he was found competent to participate in judicial proceedings.

In the course of these evaluations, Finger gave two different versions of what happened to his mother. The first version was consistent with his statements to the police. Finger claimed that Rivera had killed his mother, but could not give a coherent explanation for the blood on his clothes or his possession of the knife. The second version was an admission that he had stabbed his mother because she had been plotting to kill him and he decided to kill her before she had the opportunity to carry out her plot.

On December 18, 1996, Finger was deemed competent and Finger's case was remanded for a preliminary hearing. The hearing was conducted and Finger was bound over for trial. In the district court, Finger filed a motion seeking leave to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Finger's counsel filed the motion because the 1995 Nevada Legislature had amended the laws concerning the treatment of insanity as a defense to criminal culpability. Counsel believed, based upon the legislative history of the amendments, that he would be prohibited from arguing that Finger should be acquitted of the murder charges on the grounds of legal insanity.

The motion was never argued and no order disposing of the motion was ever entered by the district court. Instead, the record reflects that at the time of his arraignment, Finger requested permission from the district court to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The State objected and the district court denied the request without explanation. There is no indication in the record that the district court considered the legal issues raised in the written motion.

After the district court denied his request, Finger declined to enter a plea. The district court then entered a plea of not guilty pursuant to NRS 174.035(5) and set a trial date. Based upon the district court's denial of his request to plead not guilty by reason of insanity and, by inference, his ability to raise insanity as a complete defense to the murder charge, Finger determined that there were no issues to be resolved by a trial. Therefore, Finger entered his plea of guilty but mentally ill, deciding to raise the constitutional issues relating to legal insanity through an appeal pursuant to NRS 174.035(3). Based upon his plea, Finger was convicted of second-degree murder. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

Finger contends that the ability of an accused to pursue a defense of legal insanity is a fundamental right under the due process clauses of the United States and Nevada Constitutions.¹ He asserts that various amendments to the provisions of the criminal procedure statutes in Senate Bill 314 (hereinafter S.B. 314) enacted by the 1995 Legislature changed the substantive and procedural law regarding how the issue of legal insanity is treated in a criminal case and that these changes have resulted in an unconstitutional statutory scheme.

In 1995 the Legislature abolished the plea of "not guilty by reason of insanity" and created a new plea of "guilty but mentally ill." In addition, the Legislature amended the statutes that define what types of individuals can be punished for the violation of a criminal law. Finally, the Legislature enacted language declaring that an act committed by a person while in a state of insanity is no less criminal by reason of insanity and repealing the statute authorizing commitment of the criminally...