State v. Smith, 89-76

• Decision Date: 31 October 1978
• Docket Number: No. 89-76,89-76
• Citation: 396 A.2d 126,136 Vt. 520
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of Vermont v. Richard SMITH a/k/a Kevin West.

Page 126

396 A.2d 126

136 Vt. 520

STATE of Vermont v. Richard SMITH a/k/a Kevin West.

No. 89-76.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

Oct. 31, 1978.

Motion for Reargument Denied Nov. 17, 1978.

Michael J. Sheehan, Windsor County State's Atty., White River Junction, and William T. Keefe, South Burlington, for plaintiff.

James L. Morse, Defender Gen., Charles S. Martin, Appellate Defender, Robert M. Paolini, Deputy Public Defender and Geoffrey Yudien, Montpelier, and John Franco, Law Clerk (on brief), for defendant.

Before BARNEY, C. J., and DALEY, LARROW, BILLINGS and HILL, JJ.

BARNEY, Chief Judge.

This is a prosecution for the rape of a sixteen year old babysitter and the murder of her charge, her eight year old cousin. As is so frequent in cases involving serious criminal violence, sanity is a critical issue. It is the principal concern of the appeal.

The killing is conceded, both below and here, and no issues separately contesting the rape conviction are urged here. No extended recital of facts is required. The defendant was twenty-one years old at the time of these events. The evidence disclosed that the defendant, after finding out that the babysitter was alone with her charge, went to the apartment and was admitted by the little boy while the babysitter was on the telephone. He explained his presence by claiming he had permission to borrow some records from the little boy's mother. Shortly thereafter he assaulted the babysitter and the rape occurred. Afterwards the defendant attempted to strangle the boy with a cord, then finally killed him by stabbing him with a large knife he got from the kitchen. When that happened the babysitter grabbed for the knife, cutting her hand, succeeding in knocking the defendant down, and escaped. As she ran into the street he apparently threw the knife at her but missed. The babysitter fled to a neighbor's and when the police arrived the defendant was gone. When the identity of the defendant became known, the foster family with whom he was living was contacted. He was later brought by one of them to the police station.

Almost simultaneously with the issuance of the warrant and before arraignment, the State moved for a mental examination in anticipation of a plea of insanity. That motion asserted that the defendant had a history of treatment for personality disorders at Metropolitan State Hospital in Waltham, Massachusetts; New Hampshire Hospital in Concord, New Hampshire; and Waterbury State Hospital in Waterbury, Vermont. The motion was granted at the arraignment and the examination undertaken.

The test of responsibility for criminal conduct is set out in 13 V.S.A. § 4801:

The test when used as a defense in criminal cases shall be as follows:

(1) A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks adequate capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law.

(2) The terms "mental disease or defect" do not include an abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise anti-social conduct. The terms "mental disease or defect" shall include congenital and traumatic mental conditions as well as disease.

It was enacted as a result of a considerable concern that the former M'Naghten test was an inadequate measure to protect the interests and rights of the public and the accused. The new statute, like the so-called Durham rule, (Durham v. United States, 94 U.S.App.D.C. 228, 214 F.2d 862 (1954)), that other jurisdictions beginning with the District of Columbia adopted, was intended to more accurately measure the legal issue of what kind of mental condition or aberration ought to excuse criminal responsibility. The language of 13 V.S.A. § 4801 derives from a formulation recommended by the American Law Institute. See ALI, Model Penal Code Proposed Official Draft, § 4.01 (1962). Progress in the diagnosis of mental health and motivation was felt to have outreached the confines of the M'Naghten standards, and the new rule was advanced and enacted as postulating a more adequate and accurate evaluation of the reasons for criminal behavior. It moved in the direction of broader psychiatric inquiry. However, it is generally recognized that the definition of the sort of mental condition that will bar conviction for otherwise criminal acts, called "insanity" in the law, is not necessarily identical with the mental condition or conditions labelled "insanity" by psychiatry.

The raising of a defense to criminal responsibility based on insanity as defined by law has a history antedating the founding of this nation, but has always had grudging acceptance. The popular concern that it might open the way to easy acquittal of criminals was noted in State v. Hanson, 134 Vt. 227, 232, 356 A.2d 517 (1976). Implicit in that concern is the concept that there will be easy and early release from confinement for mental treatment, leaving a crime inadequately punished and, presumably, society unprotected. This understanding does not necessarily comport with the facts. See Arens, Insanity Defense at 45 (New York 1974).

Even so, the remedy is not to undercut or deny a defendant the right to present an issue related to his defense, sanctioned by statute, and so long acknowledged as validly part of our law. The consequences of a valid insanity defense with respect to confinement, treatment and discharge, if to be changed, are to be addressed in other governmental arenas. State v. Warner, 91 Vt. 391, 393, 101 A. 149, 150 (1917), written more than sixty years ago reminds us that: "It is as much the duty of the state to protect an insane man from conviction, as it is to prevent a sane man from escaping that result."

It is also to be noted that once evidence of insanity appears in the case, it becomes the burden of the state to prove the defendant sane beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Miner, 128 Vt. 55, 67, 258 A.2d 815 (1969). Even under the narrower doctrine of M'Naghten, the scope of relevant evidence as to sanity or insanity has to be allowed to be of whatever breadth is appropriate to fully expose the issue to the jury for their fair determination. Again, in State v. Warner, supra, 91 Vt. at 392, 101 A. 149 at 150, Powers, J., put it this way:

When a respondent puts his mental condition in issue by the introduction of evidence tending to show his insanity, he opens an inquiry that may take a very wide range; how wide, depends upon the circumstances of the case in hand. (Citations omitted). Broadly speaking, his whole life may be canvassed for evidence bearing upon the question; and his ancestry and family history may be investigated.

Although its precise application may have altered with advances in knowledge in the psychiatric field, the thrust of its logic is as relevant and forceful as ever.

Unfortunately, it did not avail in this case, and a reversal is required. The lower court, assertedly on grounds of relevance, foreclosed the presentation of evidence, offered to establish the kind and causes of the claimed mental deficiencies of the defendant. Attempts to present matters of mental history through others than psychiatrists were turned aside. Whatever their content, and no matter how little the jury might have valued them, to bar them from the trier of fact was to unlawfully shortchange a legitimate presentation of a claimed defense.

This was compounded by a position taken by the State and concurred in by the trial court with respect to part of the defendant's behavioral history. Examples of previous...