Hendershott v. People, 80SC345

• Decision Date: 27 September 1982
• Docket Number: No. 80SC345,80SC345
• Citation: 653 P.2d 385
• Parties: Lee Roy HENDERSHOTT, Petitioner, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 385

653 P.2d 385

Lee Roy HENDERSHOTT, Petitioner, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent.

No. 80SC345.

Supreme Court of Colorado,

En Banc.

Sept. 27, 1982.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 18, 1982.

James B. Breese, Legal Aid and Defender Program, University of Colorado School of Law, Boulder, for petitioner.

J.D. MacFarlane, Atty. Gen., Richard F. Hennessey, Deputy Atty. Gen., Mary J. Mullarkey, Sol. Gen., John Daniel Dailey, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for respondent.

QUINN, Justice.

We granted certiorari to review a judgment of the Boulder District Court affirming the conviction of Lee Roy Hendershott (defendant) for assault in the third degree. Section 18-3-204, C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl. Vol. 8). The defendant was charged with knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury to Patricia Styskal on April 28, 1979. In the course of a jury trial before the Boulder County Court the defendant offered psychiatric and psychological opinion evidence establishing that he suffered from adult minimal brain dysfunction for the purpose of negating the culpability elements of third degree assault. The trial court ruled that section 18-1-803, C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl.Vol. 8), which establishes the affirmative defense of impaired mental condition for specific intent crimes, renders mental impairment evidence inadmissible as a matter of law in the prosecution of any crime not requiring a culpability element of specific intent. The defendant was convicted and, on appeal to the Boulder District Court, his conviction was affirmed. We conclude that the trial court's ruling, which precludes the defendant from presenting any mental impairment evidence to negate the requisite culpability for the crime charged against him, violates due process of law under the United States and Colorado Constitutions. U.S. Const. Amend. XIV; Colo. Const. Art. II, Sec. 25. Accordingly, we reverse the defendant's conviction and remand for a new trial. ¹

I.

In April 1979 the defendant was living in the rooming house of Patricia Styskal, whom he had dated intermittently for approximately three years. Problems developed in their relationship due to the defendant's excessive drinking, and on April 28, 1979, Ms. Styskal told the defendant he would have to move out. She drove him to a friend's house and then went to visit her sister. At approximately 9:30 p.m. the defendant returned to the rooming house and asked Richard Jacobs, a boarder, where Ms. Styskal was. After being told that she was not there, the defendant, who in Jacobs' opinion seemed to be somewhat intoxicated, stepped inside. He then began to talk incoherently, occasionally placing his hand on Jacobs' shoulder. Jacobs felt threatened by this gesture and left the house with the defendant in close pursuit. After Jacobs succeeded in pacifying the defendant, they returned to the house. Once again Jacobs left the house and the defendant chased him. A brief struggle ensued in the front yard but Jacobs was able to flee to the home of a friend.

At approximately 11:00 p.m. Ms. Styskal returned home and found the defendant waiting in her bedroom. The defendant accused her of having been out with another man. He then struck, kicked, and began to choke her. She was able to escape and fled to a neighbor's home. The police, who were immediately summoned, found the defendant unconscious in an upstairs bedroom of Ms. Styskal's home, and he was immediately arrested and charged with assault in the third degree.

In the course of pretrial discovery the district attorney learned that defense counsel intended to offer at trial expert opinion evidence in order to establish that the defendant, due to adult minimal brain dysfunction, ² lacked the requisite culpability of "knowingly" or "recklessly" essential to the crime of assault in the third degree. The district attorney filed a pretrial motion to exclude this evidence, arguing that section 18-1-803, C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl.Vol. 8), restricts evidence of impaired mental condition to specific intent crimes ³ and that third degree assault was not a specific intent offense. The county court ruled the evidence inadmissible as a matter of law in prosecutions for crimes not requiring specific intent as an essential element of culpability. The jury found the defendant guilty and he was sentenced to six months with credit for time served. ⁴ The district court affirmed his conviction because, in its view, "evidence of mental impairment is inapplicable to a general intent offense, and the trial court did not err in excluding [such evidence]." We granted certiorari to consider the issue whether opinion evidence of a mental impairment due to a mental disease or defect may be admitted to negate the mens rea for a nonspecific intent crime such as assault in the third degree.

The defendant's contention on this appeal is that the trial court's ruling prohibited him from negating the essential culpability element of third degree assault in violation of due process of law, U.S. Const. Amend. XIV; Colo. Const. Art. II, Sec. 25. The People counter this contention with several policy considerations in support of a rule prohibiting an accused from offering evidence of impaired mental condition to contest the culpability elements except for specific intent crimes. Additionally, the People contend that even if the trial court's ruling was erroneous, the error was harmless. Before considering the respective claims of the parties we review some basic precepts of criminal and constitutional law to illuminate our analysis.

II.

It is not open to question that the power to define criminal conduct and to establish the legal components of criminal liability is vested with the General Assembly. Colo. Const. Art. V, Sec. 1; see, e.g., Patterson v. New York, 432 U.S. 197, 97 S.Ct. 2319, 53 L.Ed.2d 281 (1977). Rarely, however, will a legislative body attempt to impose the sanctions of the criminal law on the blameless. Generally, in order to subject a person to criminal liability for a felony or serious misdemeanor, there must be a concurrence of an unlawful act (actus reus) and a culpable mental state (mens rea). E.g., United States v. Bailey, 444 U.S. 394, 100 S.Ct. 624, 62 L.Ed.2d 575 (1980); Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 72 S.Ct. 240, 96 L.Ed. 288 (1952); People v. Marcy, 628 P.2d 69 (Colo.1981). The Colorado Criminal Code recognizes this general precept by providing that "the minimum requirement for criminal liability is the performance by a person of conduct which includes a voluntary act or the omission to perform an act which [the actor] is physically capable of performing." Section 18-1-502, C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl.Vol. 8). A "voluntary act" is an "act performed consciously as a result of effort or determination...." Section 18-1-501(9), C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl. Vol. 8). In most instances the legislature has required a more blameworthy level of culpability than the performance of a mere voluntary act, such as conduct performed "intentionally," "knowingly," "willfully," "recklessly," or "with criminal negligence." See section 18-1-501, C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl.Vol. 8).

Once a person is charged with violating the criminal law, basic principles of constitutional law come into play and apply throughout the prosecution of the case. It is axiomatic that an accused is presumed innocent of the charge, and this presumption extends to every element of the crime including the requisite mens rea. E.g. Taylor v. Kentucky, 436 U.S. 478, 98 S.Ct. 1930, 56 L.Ed.2d 468 (1978); Morissette v. United States, supra; People v. Hill, 182 Colo. 253, 512 P.2d 257 (1973). Additionally, due process of law requires the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt every fact necessary to constitute the crime charged before the accused may be convicted and subjected to punishment. As the United States Supreme Court observed in In Re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 363-64, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 1072, 25 L.Ed.2d 368, 375 (1970), the reasonable doubt standard is the foundation upon which the American criminal justice system rests:

"The standard provides concrete substance for the presumption of innocence--that bedrock 'axiomatic and elementary' principle whose 'enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law.' ..."

"The accused during a criminal prosecution has at stake interests of immense importance, both because of the possibility that he may lose his liberty upon conviction and because of the certainty that he would be stigmatized by the conviction. Accordingly, a society that values the good name and freedom of every individual should not condemn a man for commission of a crime when there is reasonable doubt about his guilt.... To this end, the reasonable-doubt standard is indispensable, for it 'impresses on the trier of fact the necessity of reaching a subjective state of certitude on the facts in issue.' "

Accord, e.g., Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 99 S.Ct. 2450, 61 L.Ed.2d 39 (1979); Patterson v. New York, supra; Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U.S. 684, 95 S.Ct. 1881, 44 L.Ed.2d 508 (1975). Even before the Supreme Court's decision in In Re Winship, this court recognized the reasonable doubt standard as a vital component of the Due Process Clause of the Colorado Constitution. People ex rel. Juhan v. District Court, 165 Colo. 253, 439 P.2d 741 (1968).

In addition to establishing the essential elements of criminal conduct, it is within the legislature's prerogative to formulate principles of justification or excuse, usually denominated affirmative defenses, and to limit these defenses to a particular category of crimes, so long as the basic rights of the criminally accused are not thereby impaired. E.g., Patterson v. New York, supra; People v. Ledman, 622 P.2d 534 (Colo.1981). The formulation and the limitation of affirmative defenses, however, must be distinguished from the accused's right to present reliable and relevant evidence to controvert the prosecution's case against him....