Kaufman v. United States

• Citation: 350 F.2d 408
• Decision Date: 18 October 1965
• Docket Number: No. 17834.,17834.
• Parties: Harold KAUFMAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

350 F.2d 408

Harold KAUFMAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 17834.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

September 8, 1965.

Rehearing Denied October 18, 1965.

Walter E. Diggs, Jr., of Grand, Peper & Martin, St. Louis, Mo., for appellant.

William C. Martin, Asst. U. S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo., Richard D. FitzGibbon, Jr., U. S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo., for appellee.

Before MATTHES and BLACKMUN, Circuit Judges, and REGISTER, District Judge.

BLACKMUN, Circuit Judge.

Harold Kaufman, upon his plea of not guilty, was convicted by a jury of bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a) and (d). His sole defense was insanity at the time of the crime. His motions for acquittal made at the close of all the evidence and for a new trial were denied by Judge Regan. A sentence of 20 years was imposed. Kaufman appeals in forma pauperis.

Counsel for the defendant was appointed by the trial court. Promptly after the indictment was returned, the defense filed a motion under 18 U.S.C. § 4244 for the determination of Kaufman's mental competency at that time. This motion of course was granted and the defendant was taken to the United States Medical Center at Springfield, Missouri. The ensuing report from that institution indicated competency to stand trial. The court so found. Trial counsel was granted leave to withdraw by the district court after notice of appeal had been filed. The defendant is represented on this appeal by other counsel appointed by this court.

The points raised here by the defense concern (a) the evidence as to Kaufman's sanity at the time of the offense; (b) the admission of certain lay testimony on the sanity issue; and (c) the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of trial counsel.

There is, therefore, no real dispute as to the robbery or as to Kaufman's commission of the physical acts constituting that crime. The defense concedes this. Government evidence showed the following: About four p. m. on December 16, 1963, Kaufman, then 39, entered the office of the Roosevelt Federal Savings & Loan Association, River Roads Branch, in Jennings, Missouri. He conversed with two employees, pulled a gun, announced a holdup, and demanded and received cash in excess of $300 and travelers checks for $11,520. He then ordered everyone first into the manager's office and then into a storage room and departed. Shortly thereafter he was apprehended in Alton, Illinois, with the cash and checks in his possession.

A. The defendant's sanity at the time of the offense. The question of Kaufman's sanity at the time of the crime was appropriately raised and was submitted to the jury under instructions which are not challenged. Thus, when the defense asserts that the court erred in denying its motion for acquittal at the close of all the evidence, its position necessarily is that the evidence was such that reasonable men must agree that there was reasonable doubt as to Kaufman's sanity. Dusky v. United States, 295 F.2d 743, 756 (8 Cir. 1961), cert. denied 368 U.S. 998, 82 S.Ct. 625, 7 L.Ed.2d 536; United States v. Westerhausen, 283 F.2d 844, 852 (7 Cir. 1960).

In Davis v. United States, 160 U.S. 469, 488, 16 S.Ct. 353, 358, 40 L.Ed. 499 (1895), the Supreme Court said:

"If the whole evidence, including that supplied by the presumption of sanity, does not exclude beyond reasonable doubt the hypothesis of insanity, of which some proof is adduced, the accused is entitled to an acquittal of the specific offence charged."

In the Dusky opinion, p. 754 of 295 F.2d, we cited the Davis case, the subsequent opinion in the same prosecution, Davis v. United States, 165 U.S. 373, 378, 17 S.Ct. 360, 41 L.Ed. 750 (1897), and other holdings, and we observed:

"The law consequently indulges in the presumption in favor of a defendant's sanity. That presumption, however, is rebuttable. The defendant's sanity may be brought into issue. Once it is in issue, the prosecution, in the federal courts, at least, must establish sanity beyond a reasonable doubt just as it must prove every other element in its case."

See also Hurt v. United States, 327 F.2d 978, 981 (8 Cir. 1964).

Neither side questions these principles. The government, at oral argument, appeared to concede that it possessed the burden of proving Kaufman's sanity although it complains that the court's instructions, by omitting reference to the presumption of sanity, made that burden heavier than it should have been. In any event, we conclude here, as we did in Dusky, p. 755 of 295 F.2d, that on the record before us the evidence was sufficient to place this burden on the government.

This necessitates a review of the evidence. Kaufman did not testify. The defense presented two expert and three lay witnesses:

1. Dr. H. Wayne Glotfelty, whose qualifications were stipulated, was a psychiatrist on the staff of the Federal Medical Center at Springfield since July 1963. He had practiced psychiatry for 18 years. He examined Kaufman while the defendant was at Springfield in 1964 and participated in the staff evaluation of him. This resulted in a diagnosis of "schizophrenic reaction, paranoid type in partial, rather stable remission". Dr. Glotfelty testified that, according to his information, Kaufman's mother died when he was very young; that he probably felt unwanted; that he started becoming truant at about eleven; that he has had difficulty with the law ever since; that he has had some paranoid thinking; that many schizophrenics "are able to function fairly satisfactorily on the border line in society"; that, being in remission, there was an earlier point in time when the intensity of his disease was more severe than at the time of the examination; that a person who suffers from schizophrenia is affected by the stress of everyday life; that his confinement from December 16 on could have caused the remission; that "It would have been possible" that his condition was severe enough at some point prior to the examination "so he would have had difficulty controlling his actions"; that this, however, "could be better determined by people who observed him in December or November, or in the recent past"; and that he did not know whether Kaufman's condition was so severe "that he would not have known what he was doing in December". On cross-examination the doctor stated that the Springfield staff had concluded that Kaufman was rational and was competent to stand trial; that on the day of the crime "I would say generally he did know right from wrong"; that the witness did not know whether as of that date Kaufman was able to refrain from doing a wrongful act; that if he was not nervous on December 16 and was rational with everyone in contact with him, then "I would think he was exactly like he was when we examined him in January and February, and I would say then that he was, he knew everything that was responsible at that time"; that his ability to stop arguments in the presence of children would tend to show he had control; and that a schizophrenic person, paranoid type, in partial, rather stable remission is able to function almost normally, is one who usually would be discharged from a state hospital, and is "just about normal".

2. Dr. Isadore David Waitzel possessed a Swiss medical degree, was licensed in New York in 1938, and in other states, was board certified, and, among various assignments, had been, for a time, the psychiatrist director of the State Psychiatric Clinic in Jamestown, North Dakota. At Jamestown he had occasion to examine Kaufman on December 30, 1960. His diagnosis of the defendant at that time was "Psychoneurotic reaction, other (severe)". He testified that Kaufman was not then psychotic; that his tolerance for stress and anxiety was so low that he was capable of deviant behavior; that he did not see Kaufman after 1960; that he was then a schizoid personality; that he was low in self-esteem; and that in his opinion Kaufman in December 1963 could have known right from wrong but had been subjected to such severe anxiety and pressure that he could not restrain himself from the impulse to commit crime. On cross-examination he stated that he had found no schizophrenia in Kaufman in 1960; that, "he was performing on an average level of intelligence"; that in 1963 he reacted to internal pressures with criminal behavior which he could not control; that, based upon the testimony he had heard in court and upon his own experience and examination of Kaufman, the defendant "could have found himself unable to refrain from the commission of an act he knew to be unlawful" on December 16, 1963; and that this opinion, however, was partially based upon the truthfulness of the testimony he had heard in court.

3. Patricia Scott is described by the defense as "Kaufman's obvious love object" who spurned him. At the time of the trial she was in a New York state prison serving a sentence for attempted burglary. She had been convicted in England for prostitution. She had never married but had three children, each by a different father. She met the defendant at a friend's apartment in New York City in August 1963 when she was released on bail. She stayed at that apartment for a few days and then shared one with Kaufman for about a week and a half. They then took separate apartments. Throughout this period she saw the defendant constantly except when he was out of town. He paid her rent and contributed substantially to her support. He asserted responsibility for her and her children. He gave her "quite a few thousand dollars" between August and December. He asked her to marry him. Among their acquaintances was a fence named Jack Keller. Keller gave Kaufman some stolen money orders. The defendant was to cash these and share the returns equally with Keller. Kaufman, however, lost the money orders. Keller demanded his money from the defendant and, when he was not paid, put pressure on Kaufman through threats. The defendant did make some payments...