Genius v. Pepe
| Decision Date | 07 April 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-2427,97-2427 |
| Citation | 147 F.3d 64 |
| Parties | Everard GENIUS, Petitioner, Appellant, v. Peter PEPE, Jr., Respondent, Appellee. . Heard |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Robert L. Sheketoff with whom Sheketoff & Homan was on brief for petitioner.
Gregory I. Massing, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Bureau, Appellate Division, with whom Scott Harshbarger, Attorney General, was on brief for respondent.
Before TORRUELLA, Chief Judge, ALDRICH, Senior Circuit Judge, and BOUDIN, Circuit Judge.
This is an appeal by Everard Genius from the district court's order denying Genius's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Genius was convicted of first degree murder in state court in 1980 and is currently serving a life sentence for that crime. Relying primarily on the well-reasoned decision of the district court, we sustain the denial of the writ. However, in light of the unusual history of the case, we set forth a brief summary of the facts and our reasons for affirmance.
The facts, recounted in numerous opinions cited hereafter, can be briefly stated. In 1979, Genius--who was married at the time--stabbed to death his paramour, Lillie Mae Nesbitt. He claimed that she had threatened him with a gun and that he recalled nothing thereafter. He also claimed that he was compelled to commit the murder by a voodoo curse that his wife had placed upon him. There is no dispute that Genius did in fact kill Nesbitt; the only issue is whether an insanity defense should have been pursued more vigorously.
Prior to the state court trial, Genius was examined by Dr. Dennis Koson, a forensic psychiatrist employed by McLean Hospital with responsibilities at Bridgewater State Hospital. Koson found Genius incompetent to stand trial due to "situational depression of severe proportions" resulting from "incarceration in the jail and the charges lodged against him." Genius was then treated for approximately two months with antidepressant medication. In May 1980, Koson examined Genius again and found the depression had lifted and that Genius was competent; Koson found "no evidence of psychosis" and opined that Genius was not insane at the time of the murder.
At almost the same time but prior to Genius's trial, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recognized a diminished capacity "defense" to first degree murder charges. Commonwealth v. Gould, 380 Mass. 672, 405 N.E.2d 927, 932-35 (1980). Under Gould, even a person who is not insane under Massachusetts law might still argue that he did not have the capacity to form the specific intent needed for a conviction of first degree murder, which in Massachusetts requires premeditation or extreme cruelty or atrocity. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 265, § 1. Even without either element, the defendant might still be found guilty of second degree murder so long as the murder was intentional.
Genius's counsel, Reuben Dawkins, determined to build his defense on the Gould case. At trial, he called Dr. Koson who testified that while Genius was not insane at the time of the murder, he was "extremely agitated to the point of losing touch with the enormity of what he was doing." However, consistent with his own prior opinion, Koson admitted that nothing suggested that Genius was "mentally ill" at the time of the crime as required for insanity under Massachusetts law. 1 After several hours of deliberation, the jurors asked for further instructions on extreme atrocity and after several days of deliberation, returned a verdict of first degree murder. Genius's conviction was affirmed on direct appeal. See Commonwealth v. Genius, 387 Mass. 695, 442 N.E.2d 1157 (1982).
Two years later, in 1984, Genius filed a pro se motion for a new trial and in that connection was examined--although only years later, in 1987--by another psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel Weiss. Weiss said that Genius's belief in voodoo constituted a delusion that deprived Genius of self-control and meant that he "could not be held to be criminally responsible." In a supplemental opinion, Weiss said that Genius's amnesia might indicate that he was suffering from a mental illness or defect after the murder. Treating this as newly discovered evidence, the state Superior Court judge granted Genius a new trial and was promptly reversed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. See Commonwealth v. Genius, 402 Mass. 711, 524 N.E.2d 1349 (1988).
Having exhausted state remedies, Genius then turned to the federal district court to pursue his constitutional claim that Dawkins had rendered ineffective assistance of counsel in the original state court trial by failing to pursue adequately the possibility of an insanity defense. Under the Sixth Amendment, made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, a criminal defendant is entitled to a competent defense counsel, although counsel's judgments in formulating the defense strategy are entitled to substantial deference. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). In response to Genius's initial habeas corpus petition, the state moved to dismiss on procedural grounds only, arguing that Genius had waived his objection by failing earlier to raise his constitutional claim.
In response, Judge Keeton dismissed the petition on the merits, determining that Genius's allegations, even if true, did not show that Dawkins had rendered ineffective assistance of counsel. At the time of this decision, it appears that the state had not yet made any effort to develop the record to show what other psychiatric evaluations had been done. Thus, when Genius appealed from this original denial of the petition, this court knew little more than the facts already recounted above concerning the defense that Dawkins had mounted at trial and the background of his decision. On that record, this court reversed the district court. See Genius v. Pepe, 50 F.3d 60 (1st Cir.1995).
In a brief opinion, this court pointed out that although Koson had rejected Genius's claim of mental disorder, Weiss had now opined that Genius had been or could have been insane. Dawkins might, under state law, have obtained an independent psychiatric examination paid for by the Commonwealth, and the report would have been privileged and unavailable to the Commonwealth. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 261, § 27C(4), ch. 233 § 20B. Given that Genius had admittedly been incompetent to stand trial for several months and that insanity would offer a complete defense, this court said that Dawkins had provided incompetent representation in failing to pursue the...
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