People v. Stack

• Decision Date: 30 December 1999
• Docket Number: No. 1-97-0213.,1-97-0213.
• Citation: 311 Ill. App.3d 162,724 N.E.2d 79,243 Ill.Dec. 770
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Richard STACK, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

724 N.E.2d 79

311 Ill. App.3d 162

243 Ill.Dec. 770

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Richard STACK, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-97-0213.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Fifth Division.

December 30, 1999.

Rita A. Fry, Public Defender of Cook County, Chicago (Assistant Public Defenders Robert C. Drizin and Stephen Richards, of counsel), for Appellant.

Richard A. Devine, State's Attorney of Cook County, Chicago (Assistant State's Attorneys Renee Goldfarb, Carol L. Gaines and Michele Lavin, of counsel), for Appellee.

Justice QUINN delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a bench trial in the circuit court of Cook County, defendant, Richard Stack, was convicted of the May 11, 1980, murder of his wife and 13-month-old son and then sentenced to concurrent terms of life imprisonment. This was defendant's third trial. Previously, this court reversed defendant's first conviction on several grounds and remanded for a new trial. People v. Stack, 128 Ill.App.3d 611, 83 Ill.Dec. 832, 470 N.E.2d 1252 (1984) (opinion of Buckley, J., Campbell, J., dissenting) (Stack I). The State appealed the appellate panel's decision, and the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed this court's opinion in part and remanded for a new trial. People v. Stack, 112 Ill.2d 301, 97 Ill.Dec. 676, 493 N.E.2d 339 (1986) (Stack II).

A second jury trial resulted in another conviction. Defendant appealed his second conviction, and this court again reversed and remanded. People v. Stack, 244 Ill. App.3d 166, 184 Ill.Dec. 583, 613 N.E.2d 1175 (1993) (opinion of Buckley, J., Campbell, J., specially concurring) (Stack III).

Defendant filed a timely appeal from his third conviction and sentence and contends that the trial court erred in the following: (1) by allowing testimony concerning his post-Miranda silence in violation of both his state and federal due process rights; (2) by finding that the State proved defendant sane beyond a reasonable doubt; (3) by improperly limiting the testimony of Laura Doise; (4) by improperly denying defendant's motion to take an evidentiary deposition of two witnesses; (5) by restricting the testimony of defendant's psychiatric experts; (6) by not allowing defendant's treating physician, Dr. Jane Caseley, to testify as to her opinion of his mental condition shortly after the murders; (7) by not allowing Detective Foley to testify as to a prior consistent statement by Father Lutz; and (8) by limiting defense counsel's questioning of the prosecution's expert witness. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm defendant's conviction and sentence.

The evidence elicited at defendant's third trial was substantially similar to that presented in both of his prior trials. Therefore, in the interest of brevity, we adopt, with the exceptions discussed below, the recitation of facts from Stack I and Stack III.

Officer William Christopher testified that, along with Officer Thomas Scott, he arrived at defendant's residence on May 11, 1980, at 2:50 p.m. and saw defendant leaning out of a broken window and yelling. As part of his testimony describing the scene at defendant's residence, Officer Christopher acknowledged that he made a number of requests or commands to defendant. Officer Christopher testified that defendant had no difficulty with the requests or commands.

Officer Thomas Scott testified, as he had at the two previous trials, that as he approached defendant's residence on May 11, 1980, defendant was leaning out of a window, naked to the waist, yelling "something about devils." Scott testified that subsequently he was with defendant in the emergency room of Holy Cross Hospital. Whenever a nurse or doctor would walk in, defendant would immediately start talking about demons and devils. Defendant said nothing about devils and demons when he and Scott were alone. On cross-examination, defense counsel asked Officer Scott whether defendant said anything when the two were alone at the crime scene. Officer Scott stated that defendant was silent.

Former priest Robert Spielman, an associate pastor to Father Robert Lutz in 1980, testified for the State. Although he had not testified at either of the two previous trials, Spielman stated that he had witnessed a conversation between Father Lutz and defendant during the early morning hours of May 9, 1980, at the rectory of St. Mary Star of the Sea. According to Spielman, he remained behind a glass partition while Father Lutz answered the door. Spielman testified that he did not recall hearing all of the conversation between Father Lutz and defendant, but did remember that Father Lutz said that defendant appeared to be intoxicated and had complained about his troubled marriage. However, he did not remember Father Lutz saying anything about defendant's concerns regarding evil in the world.

Dr. Henry Lihmeyer testified as an expert in the field of psychiatry for the State. Dr. Lihmeyer interviewed defendant on April 25, 1996. Prior to the interview, Dr. Lihmeyer reviewed the grand jury testimony, the testimony from the two previous trials, the testimony from defendant's prior fitness hearings, psychological and psychiatric reports, and medical reports. He conducted interviews with the family and friends of both defendant and his wife Carol, and referred defendant to Dr. Linda Grossman for psychological testing. Based on his review and analysis of the above information, Dr. Lihmeyer was of the opinion that defendant was sane on May 11, 1980, and was able to appreciate the criminality of his act.

According to Dr. Lihmeyer, defendant told him that he had been violent towards Carol during their marriage and that he often hit and beat her. Defendant also told Dr. Lihmeyer that whenever he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, he would become more abusive, both verbally and physically. Dr. Lihmeyer testified that he believed that the version of the events of May 11, 1980, that defendant related to him differed from prior accounts. In other versions of the murders defendant had insisted the devil was in Carol, but defendant never told Dr. Lihmeyer that he killed Carol because he saw the devil in her. Dr. Lihmeyer noted that defendant had admitted to drinking and using drugs, including PCP and cocaine, in the days before May 11, 1980. Dr. Lihmeyer testified that if defendant used drugs up until the week before the murders, he may have had some psychotic symptoms during that week that would still have allowed him to function normally. Defendant told Dr. Lihmeyer that he had significant financial problems at the time of the murders. Carol was pressuring him to get a job and his in-laws were pressuring him to get a job and pay back some of the money he had borrowed.

Dr. Lihmeyer disagreed with the medical professionals who reported that defendant suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and he testified that defendant was sane at the time of the murders, basing his opinion on the following beliefs: (1) defendant's varying accounts of the murder were inconsistent with an individual suffering from a serious mental disease; (2) because defendant's delusions changed, Dr. Lihmeyer did not believe they were truthful; (3) defendant's calm and cooperative behavior at the time of his arrest was inconsistent with that of someone who had just experienced a psychotic episode; and (4) defendant's behavior at Holy Cross Hospital following the murders differed depending on who was in the room. Instead, Dr. Lihmeyer believed that defendant suffered from a conduct disorder evidenced by events in his childhood, including alcohol abuse beginning at a young age, poor school performance, prior treatment for attention deficit disorder, and aggression.

Dr. Lihmeyer also noted the significance of defendant not having a history of mental illness and no member of his family having a record of mental illness. There is a definite correlation between schizophrenia and heredity but a low correlation between antisocial personality disorder and heredity. Dr. Lihmeyer testified that defendant's records from Chester Mental Health Center indicated that in December 1980 the Chester treatment team felt that defendant was fit for trial and he exhibited no psychotic symptoms. Yet when Dr. Stipes came to examine defendant in Chester on December 15, 1980, defendant began to act unusual. By January 1981, the Chester team thought defendant was taking a psychology and the law course and defendant was orchestrating an insanity defense.

Defense counsel disputed Dr. Lihmeyer's credibility and argued to the trial court that he was biased. Dr. Sheldon Miller of Northwestern University Medical School testified that, contrary to Lihmeyer's resume, he was no longer a professor, having resigned in 1994. However, the trial court refused to let defense counsel question Dr. Miller as to Dr. Lihmeyer's reason for leaving his professorship.

Anthony Grau testified for the State. According to Grau, he had known defendant for several years prior to 1980 and sold drugs to him for 2½ years before the murders. He saw defendant under the influence of drugs and alcohol on numerous occasions and stated that defendant was often violent, aggressive and outspoken. While in custody on a murder charge of his own, Grau attempted suicide and was sent to Cermak Hospital. There, he saw defendant. Grau testified that while in custody together defendant never said anything about demons, devils or God. In fact, defendant and Grau talked about "acting crazy" and defendant told Grau that he was going to use the Bible to prove that he was crazy. Defendant and Grau observed other inmates who were mentally ill and learned how to act and what to say. They discussed how they needed to persuade the doctors at the Psychiatric Institute that they were unfit for trial. They would then be transferred to Chester, where they would build a psychiatric history. Their ultimate goal was to be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

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