Hawkins v. United States, 16744.

• Citation: 114 US App. DC 44,310 F.2d 849
• Decision Date: 01 November 1962
• Docket Number: No. 16744.,16744.
• Parties: Thomas HAWKINS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia)

114 US App. DC 44, 310 F.2d 849 (1962)

Thomas HAWKINS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 16744.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued May 21, 1962.

Decided November 1, 1962.

Mr. Francis J. Kelly, Washington, D. C. (appointed by this court), for appellant.

Mr. Paul A. Renne, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Messrs. David C. Acheson, U. S. Atty., and Nathan J. Paulson, Asst. U. S. Atty. at the time of argument, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before BAZELON, Chief Judge, and WILBUR K. MILLER and WRIGHT, Circuit Judges.

WRIGHT, Circuit Judge.

Appellant was convicted of Assault With Intent to Commit Robbery¹ and Robbery.² On appeal he alleges two errors in the trial court below: (1) denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal by reason of insanity; (2) intemperate examination by the trial judge of a Government psychiatrist subpoenaed by the defense. We affirm the conviction.

On his own motion appellant was ordered to D. C. General Hospital for mental examination to determine his competency to stand trial.³ Dr. Rockland, Assistant Chief Psychiatrist of that hospital, signed its report indicating that appellant was competent to stand trial. With respect to appellant's mental condition at the time of the alleged crime, the hospital report stated:

"* * * However, he is suffering from a `low grade\' mental illness, a Schizoid Character Disorder. This predisposes him to becoming psychotic, particularly under the influence of large amounts of alcohol. During these psychotic episodes, he would not be responsible for his actions.

"It is very possible, and even probable, that the crime was committed while Mr. Hawkins was temporarily psychotic; however, we cannot, in retrospect, be sure of this."

Dr. Rockland's testimony on trial, which confirmed the hospital report, and the testimony of appellant's mother, who said that as a child her son had fallen on his head twice, was the only evidence offered by the defense on the mental issue. The Government offered none. The police officers who arrested Hawkins within thirty minutes after the robbery, however, testified unequivocally that he was "completely sober" at that time.

The defense maintains that the mental condition of the defendant became an issue in the case when it introduced some evidence tending to show incompetence at the time of the act, and that the Government, having offered no evidence on this issue, has failed even to undertake its burden of proving Hawkins sane at the time of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. The Government, while not conceding that the evidence introduced was sufficient to raise the issue, maintains nevertheless that the jury was justified in finding Hawkins sane beyond a reasonable doubt on appellant's evidence alone. The Government also argues that Dr. Rockland did not classify Hawkins' mental condition as a disease and that, in any event, according to the psychiatric evidence, the condition, whatever it was, would be activated only by the ingestion of "large amounts of alcohol."

The Government's oblique suggestion that the defendant's evidence may have been insufficient to raise the mental issue is without merit, and its failure to advance the argument directly is understandable. Since the Government offered no evidence on the issue, it would be difficult to argue in the same brief that, while the defendant's offer did not amount to some evidence, it proved beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant's act was not the product of mental disease. Be that as it may, the evidence here, as the trial court held, was clearly sufficient to raise the issue. The subject matter being what it is, there can be, of course, no sharp quantitative or qualitative definition of some evidence.⁴ "Certainly it means more than a scintilla, yet, of course, the amount need not be so substantial as to require, if uncontroverted, a directed verdict of acquittal."⁵ The judgment of the trial judge as to the sufficiency of the evidence is entitled to great weight on appeal, but, since in a criminal case the defendant need prove nothing, any real doubt should be resolved in his favor.

Once the issue is raised by some evidence, the Government must undertake its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt⁶ that the defendant was not suffering from mental disease or that, if he was, then the act in question was not the product thereof.⁷ There is a quibble here as to whether the pyschiatrist classified Hawkins' mental condition as a disease. Whether so or not is not dispositive of the ultimate question. While the psychiatrist's diagnosis is admissible, it is not binding on the jury, for the psychiatrist's diagnosis of a condition as a mental disease is not necessarily a diagnosis of mental disease in the legal sense. Whether the defendant had a mental disease which will excuse him from criminal responsibility for his unlawful act is an issue of ultimate fact for the jury.⁸ "What psychiatrists may consider a `mental disease or defect' for clinical purposes, where their concern is treatment, may or may not be the same as mental disease or defect for the jury's purpose in determining criminal responsibility. Consequently, for that purpose the jury should be told that a mental disease or defect includes any abnormal condition of the mind which substantially affects mental or emotional processes and substantially impairs behavior controls."⁹ This is a legal standard to be applied by the jury¹⁰ to all the evidence, professional and lay, bearing on the defendant's mental condition.

Psychiatrists' opinions on ultimate questions reserved for the jury may not be particularly helpful.¹¹ Psychiatric testimony should be directed toward explaining what the expert has observed about the dynamics of the defendant's mental condition: for example, about his symptoms, characteristics, behavior and history; and toward indicating, if the psychiatrist is in a position to do so, the effect of the observed condition on the development, adaptation and functioning of the defendant's mental or emotional processes and his behavior controls. Proper examination of the expert as to these matters will provide the jury with a basis for determining the first ultimate issue: whether the evidence shows the existence of a mental disease. Given this information, under proper instructions, the jury can not only make its own decision as to that ultimate issue but also can decide for itself whether the defendant's act was the product of the mental disease, if one be found to exist.

Here the evidence of mental disease such as would meet the legal definition thereof is meager indeed. The mother's testimony that the defendant fell on his head twice, without more, does not necessarily prove anything. The tests for brain damage were all negative.¹² Dr. Rockland did say that Hawkins was ...