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State v. Flake8/5/2003
present case has again completely insulated an unreasonable jury verdict from meaningful appellate review.
II.
In this case, the prosecution established that the defendant, Christopher M. Flake, was an acquaintance of both Mike Fultz and Fred Bizot and that he shot both victims without apparent provocation. The prosecution produced no evidence, however, establishing that the defendant had ever expressed an intent or desire to commit acts of violence against the victims and no evidence indicating that the defendant had any expressed motive or reason for his conduct. The prosecution also produced no eyewitnesses to either offense and no lay or expert testimony describing the defendant's mental state immediately before, during, or after the offenses on April 5, 1997.
In contrast, the defense presented overwhelming lay and expert evidence of the defendant's history of mental illness and his mental state before, during, and after the offenses. For instance, Michael Musso, the defendant's co-worker at Cooper Moving Company, was the sole witness who described the defendant's conduct and mental state shortly before the offenses on April 5, 1997. Musso testified that the defendant seemed "unusually agitated" that day, that he spoke even less than normal, and that he took an unusual number of breaks to smoke, even though he was in the presence of customers who were paying them by the hour. Musso also described a bizarre incident that day in which the defendant asked to borrow money for lunch but then tore up a hamburger into small pieces without eating any of it. Musso testified that the defendant's work performance that day was "really bad," and he later asked that he not be assigned to work with the defendant.
The defendant's father, James Flake, testified that the defendant had a lengthy history of mental illness, depression, and substance abuse. According to Flake, the defendant was 11 or 12 years of age when he began to withdraw socially and have trouble with his grades. The defendant had few friends and began having disciplinary problems. James Flake consulted a church counselor when the defendant was in ninth grade, and the counselor suggested that the defendant should see a mental health professional.
The defendant began seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Luscomb, for a period of three or four years. He began drinking, however, suffered from depression, and continued to decline academically. The defendant was hospitalized for substance abuse and depression on three occasions. In 1988, the defendant was admitted to Parkwest Hospital for sixty days. When released, he began attending Alcoholics Anonymous six nights per week. In 1989, the defendant was hospitalized for another sixty days due to substance abuse and depression. Although the defendant transferred to a high school that had a support group for students with substance abuse issues, he continued to deteriorate and suffer from depression. In 1990, the defendant was hospitalized a third time for substance abuse and depression.
James Flake testified that the defendant graduated from high school but dropped out of a Mississippi junior college after only one semester because he had grown "angry, frustrated, and depressed." The defendant next attended the University of Tennessee at Martin from 1991 to 1993; while he improved academically, the defendant still returned home each weekend and appeared depressed and angry. The defendant later dropped out of UT-Martin and attended Shelby State Community College from 1993 to 1995, where he managed only a 1.8 grade point average.
James Flake testified that the defendant saw Dr. Melvin Goldin, a Memphis psychiatrist, from 1993 to 1995, an
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