State v. Sanders

• Citation: 161 W.Va. 399,242 S.E.2d 554
• Decision Date: 28 March 1978
• Docket Number: No. 13838,13838
• Court: Supreme Court of West Virginia
• Parties: STATE of West Virginia v. Helen SANDERS.

Page 554

242 S.E.2d 554

161 W.Va. 399

STATE of West Virginia v. Helen SANDERS.

No. 13838.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

March 28, 1978.

Syllabus by the Court

1. "In a criminal prosecution, the State is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt every material element of the crime with which the defendant is charged, and it is error for the court to instruct the jury in such a manner as to require it to accept a presumption as proof beyond a reasonable doubt of any material element of the crime with which the defendant is charged or as requiring the defendant either to introduce evidence to rebut the presumption or to carry the burden of proving the contrary." Syl. pt. 1, Jones v. Warden, No. 14010, 241 S.E.2d 914 (W.Va. Jan. 17, 1978); syl. pt. 4, State v. Pendry, W.Va., 227 S.E.2d 210 (1976).

2. In a trial for murder where the defendant raises insanity as the sole defense, the court upon request should conduct an in camera hearing to determine whether incriminating statements made by the defendant to a third party while in a hospital emergency room shortly after committing the homicide, attempting suicide, and having been diagnosed by the attending staff psychiatrist as "suicidally depressed and mentally ill," were voluntary and admissible into evidence.

3. Upon request, in a murder case where the sole defense is insanity, the court should ask the jurors in voir dire whether they have a bias or prejudice against psychiatrists or against persons suspected of having a mental illness or defect. W.Va.Code § 56-6-12.

4. A witness in a criminal or civil case may testify as to his own motive or intent whenever his intent or motive is in issue.

Wilson, Frame, Rowe & Jolliffe, Clark B. Frame, Morgantown, Steptoe & Johnson, Carl F. Stucky, Jr., Charleston, for plaintiff.

Chauncey H. Browning, Jr., Atty. Gen., Paul T. Farrell, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charleston, for defendant.

McGRAW, Justice:

At approximately 6:30 a. m. on September 24, 1975, the defendant shot and killed her husband, Craig Sanders, as he returned to the door of their home after having taken the dog for a walk. Her defense at trial was that she was not guilty by reason of insanity. On December 15, 1975, in the Circuit Court of Monongalia County, she was found guilty of first-degree murder with the recommendation for mercy and is now confined to the West Virginia State Prison for Women.

I

The defendant assigns as error certain instructions offered by the State and given to the jury. ¹ State's Instructions Nos. 1, 2 and 4 are essentially the same as Instructions D, E and B respectively, discussed fully in State v. Pendry, W.Va., 227 S.E.2d 210 (1976). Furthermore, State's Instruction No. 5 was repetitious of No. 4 and State's Instruction No. 7 was repetitious of No. 2. Thus, these instructions are fatally defective, and we reverse under the law well-enunciated in syllabus point 4 of State v. Pendry, supra, and in syllabus point 1 of Jones v. Warden, No. 14010, 241 S.E.2d 914 (W.Va. Jan. 17, 1978) In a criminal prosecution, the State is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt every material element of the crime with which the defendant is charged, and it is error for the court to instruct the jury in such a manner as to require it to accept a presumption as proof beyond a reasonable doubt of any material element of the crime with which the defendant is charged or as requiring the defendant either to introduce evidence to rebut the presumption or to carry the burden of proving the contrary.

Having expressed the basis of our holding in this case, we will next examine certain points raised to assist the lower court on retrial of this case.

II

At approximately 8:30 a. m., after being taken into police custody an hour earlier, the defendant was removed to the West Virginia University Medical Center where she was examined and treated by four doctors. She told the physicians in the emergency room that she had tried to commit suicide by swallowing 25 tablets of Valium. The staff psychiatrist was called in, and he wrote on her medical chart that she was "suicidally depressed and mentally ill." One attending doctor testified that all the physicians agreed that she was physically unable to leave the emergency room in the custody of the deputy sheriff. At one point her stomach was pumped.

Shortly thereafter at approximately 10:30 a. m., a friend of the defendant, Rebecca Hall, visited the defendant in the hospital as part of a "mutual agreement" between her and her employer, Mr. Gene Sanders, brother and business partner of the victim. She testified that she had known the defendant for twenty-five years and went to visit in order to "see how she was, and to be with her until part of her family got there."

During the course of the visit, the defendant made some incriminating remarks to Mrs. Hall. ² At trial, the defense requested an in camera hearing to have the trial court determine the voluntariness of the statements made. The court refused the motion, and the witness was permitted to recount to the jury what was said by the defendant.

The cases in this jurisdiction mandate that an in camera voluntariness hearing be held before admitting incriminating statements into evidence. This rule is exemplified by syllabus point 2 of State v. Smith, W.Va., 212 S.E.2d 759 (1975):

The presentation to a jury of incriminating and damaging statements which amount to admissions of part or all of an offense, allegedly made by the accused, without first having permitted a determination of the voluntariness thereof out of the presence of the jury, constitutes reversible error.

Further support for this requirement is found in State v. Johnson, W.Va., 226 S.E.2d 442 (1976); State v. Starr, W.Va., 216 S.E.2d 242 (1975); Spaulding v. Warden, 212 S.E.2d 619 (1975) and State v. Fortner, 150 W.Va. 571, 148 S.E.2d 669 (1966).

We are aware that in each of the above-cited cases the incriminating confessions or admissions were made to police officers and not to mere friends or visitors. Therefore, if the sole purpose for the in camera voluntariness hearing is to deter, discover, or punish undesirable police conduct, then we might be inclined to distinguish those cases from the one at bar.

But should the right to an in camera voluntariness hearing depend upon the identity of the party to whom the admission or confession is made? We think not. One can involuntarily make an admission or a confession to any listener. Since the focal point of the inquiry is whether the statement is voluntary, ³ the courts require an in camera hearing in such cases. E. g., State v. Cooper, 286 N.C. 549, 213 S.E.2d 305 (1975) (defendant confesses in emergency room to murdering wife and children); McElroy v. State, 204 So.2d 463 (Miss.1967) (defendant accused of grand larceny confesses to property owner who visits him in jail.) While the identity of the listener is an important factor to consider, it should not be determinative of the right to an in camera judicial determination of voluntariness in this case.

We hold, then, as follows: In a trial for murder where the defendant raises insanity as the sole defense, the court upon request should conduct an in camera hearing to determine whether incriminating statements made by the defendant to a third party while in a hospital emergency room shortly after committing the homicide, attempting suicide, and having been diagnosed by the attending staff psychiatrist as "suicidally depressed and mentally ill," were voluntary and admissible into evidence.

III

The defendant assigns as error the trial court's refusal to ask three of the six voir dire questions they proposed. ⁴ She argues that the only issue at trial was her mental capacity and since her entire case rested upon the testimony of Dr. Allen, a psychiatrist, the three rejected inquiries went to the very heart of her case. These questions, she contends, were designed to uncover possibly prejudicial attitudes toward this sole issue before the jury.

W.Va.Code § 56-6-12 guarantees that the "court shall on motion of (either) party, examine on oath any . . . juror . . . to know whether he is a qualified juror . . . or is sensible of any bias or prejudice therein . . ." The object of this statute, characterized in State v. Pendry, supra at 216, as "one of the most progressive statutes found anywhere on the subject," is to secure jurors whose minds are wholly free from bias or prejudice either for or against the accused. State v. Messer, 99 W.Va. 241, 128 S.E. 373 (1925); State v. Dushman, 79 W.Va. 747, 91 S.E. 809 (1917); State v. Hatfield, 48 W.Va. 561, 37 S.E. 626 (1900). The method of achieving this goal is more fully discussed in our most recent decision on voir dire in State v. Pendry, supra at 217:

It may frequently become necessary for the trial court or counsel to go into particular matters which may be the subject of biased or prejudiced views in order to determine whether the juror in fact, even without his own knowledge, may have a demonstrable bias or prejudice which would operate to the disadvantage of one of the litigating parties.

Such is the case at bar where the sole defense to the murder charge, insanity, is based primarily upon the testimony of a psychiatrist. Upon request, the court in this case should have asked the jurors in voir dire whether they have a bias or prejudice against psychiatrists or against persons suspected of having a mental disease or defect. The trial court, then, at minimum, should have asked Defendant's Voir Dire Questions Nos. 2 and 3.

IV

At trial, the defense attorney asked the defendant, "Helen, when Mr. Sanders was shot, do you recall intending to shoot him?" The state immediately objected, and the court sustained the objection.

Citing several civil and criminal cases from this state, the defendant on appeal argues that her state of mind was the sole issue at trial and that the court's refusal to allow her to testify as to her...