State v. Williams

• Decision Date: 09 October 1978
• Docket Number: No. 61772,61772
• Citation: 363 So.2d 441
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. James WILLIAMS.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 441

363 So.2d 441

STATE of Louisiana v. James WILLIAMS.

No. 61772.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Oct. 9, 1978.

Brian Perry, New Orleans, for defendant-relator.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., William L. Brockman, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-respondent.

SUMMERS, Justice.

On June 26, 1975 James Williams was indicted by the Grand Jury of Orleans Parish for aggravated rape, alleged to have been committed on June 14, 1975. La.Rev.Stat. 14:42. The record sheds little light on the circumstances surrounding this charge save that set forth in the arrest register. From this source we learn that the offense occurred in the city of New Orleans at 4:45 a. m. on June 14, 1975. Williams was arrested approximately eight hours later and positively identified by the victim. The weapon used was a knife.

The accused was represented by counsel, who alleged in a motion on July 28, 1975 that Williams was apparently deaf and dumb and he was therefore unable to communicate with his counsel and that testing was necessary to ascertain his true physical state. Accordingly on the same day the trial judge ordered the sheriff to transport Williams to the Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans, Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology.

On August 1, 1975 the LSU Speech and Language Clinic reported to defendant's counsel. The report set forth:

"This 22 year old man was seen at the LSU Medical Center Speech and Language Clinic on July 31, 1975 for speech and language evaluation to determine communication deficits secondary to hearing loss. He currently is detained at Orleans Parish Prison charged with aggravated rape.

History

"Mr. Williams was brought to this Clinic by a prison deputy, but his mother and several brothers and sisters also came to the appointment and were helpful in providing background data.

"The mother reported that her pregnancy with this child was full term and uncomplicated. Medical history, as reported by the mother, is essentially negative. There is no family history of hearing disorders.

"Mrs. Williams could give no reason for her son's loss of hearing, other than to state that he has always had trouble hearing and talking. He communicates with his family primarily by primitive gestures, supplemented by vocalizations and some word approximations.

"Mr. Williams reportedly has had no school experience. His older brother reported that an uncle in Hattiesburg had wanted to get speech and hearing help for the boy years ago, but that his mother had resisted. Mrs. Williams said James' hearing was tested in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and that a hearing aid was recommended, but she had never gotten one for him because of Welfare complexities. Mrs. Williams also reported that James had undergone testing that, from her description, may have been an intelligence test, at about age 13 in Birmingham, Ala., but she had no recollection of the results or recommendations.

Examination

"Mr. Williams entered the testing situation willingly and was cooperative throughout. His relation to common objects and environmental orientation appeared normal.

"Language testing indicated severe deficits. He did not respond to speech appropriately, could not identify most named objects, and could not follow simple one-part instructions, unless they were accompanied by gestures. He demonstrated no understanding of deaf sign language. He named some common objects verbally, using word approximations, and used a few verbs. When asked to describe story-action pictures he employed primarily single words and unintelligible jargon, interspersed with real-word approximations. He employed a voice of normal quality and loudness but lacking in the pitch inflections of connected speech.

"Mr. Williams verbally counted objects only up to 7 and demonstrated mental addition and subtraction abilities up to seven; i. e., 5 take-away 3 = 2, 5 plus 2 = 7. He did not understand the examiner's verbal request for certain numbers of objects ("Give me 3, Give me 5"), but did understand when the examiner held up the number of fingers to indicate how many were wanted. Mr. Williams matched colors correctly but did not understand or use color names.

"Reading and writing skills are non-functional, except to print his name.

"A short time was spent in trial teaching of sign language vocabulary. In less than ten minutes he had learned to understand and use five noun words and three color words in sign language, indicating good potential for development of communication through this modality.

"A clinical examination of the intraoral speech mechanism including the tongue, lips, hard palate, velum and dentition revealed no structural or functional abnormalities which would be likely to interfere with speech or voice production.

"An audiometric testing of hearing sensitivity in our Audiology Clinic revealed a severe, bilateral sensorineural hearing loss.

"In response to the examiner's request that he draw a man, the patient produced a figure with skill and conceptualization at the eight year, six month level of the Goodenough norms.

Impressions

"Mr. Williams displayed severe communication deficits in all modalities, including speech, oral language comprehension and expression, sign language, reading and writing. He communicates primarily with primitive gestures, unintelligible jargon and a few word approximations. Lipreading is essentially nonfunctional.

"He demonstrated potential for development of some speech if provided with hearing aid amplification and for development of sign language communication if intensive tutoring is made available.

Recommendations

"1. Psychological testing to determine intellectual potential so that realistic goals can be set for Mr. Williams.

"2. Speechk English language, and sign language training at our facility, in conjunction with hearing aid fitting and auditory training.

"3. It is recommended that members of his family also learn sign language, possibly in classes offered at the Catholic Deaf Center."

An August 4, 1975 report of the Audiology Clinic was also furnished in which this audiological evaluation was made. "Audiological Evaluation

"James was seen at the Audiology Clinic, LSU Medical Center on July 31, 1975 for a hearing evaluation. The evaluation had been ordered by criminal authorities regarding his arrest and prosecution on criminal charges.

"Results of pure tone air and bone conduction testing indicate that James has a severe hearing loss in the right ear and a severe to profound hearing loss in the left ear. The loss appears to be primarily sensorineural in nature. Speech awareness thresholds of 60dB HL for the right ear and 75dB HL for the left ear correlated well with the pure tone thresholds.

"Impedance evaluation revealed a normally functioning right middle ear system and a slightly stiff left middle ear system.

"Stapedial reflexes were elevated when stimulating the right ear and were even more elevated or absent when stimulating the left ear. These results are very likely indicative of recruitment rather than true sensitivity levels. Further testing was impossible due to the patient's inability to understand complex verbal instructions. Otoscopic examination by Dr. Fourier, M.D. revealed some patches of plaque on the left ear drum, but it was felt that it not medically significant in relation to the total severity of the problem.

"In summary, James Williams has a severe hearing impairment. His loss...