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State v. Flake8/5/2003
related that the defendant had been under the care of Dr. Richard Luscomb since 1988, that the defendant had been hospitalized three times, and that the defendant had thoughts of suicide that led to his hospitalization in 1989 and 1990. He recalled that the defendant reported "homicidal thoughts" about persons who frustrated him. Dr. Goldin diagnosed the defendant with obsessive compulsive disorder and prescribed medicine for depression. Dr. Goldin offered no testimony on the defendant's mental state at the time of the offenses in this case.
The next mental health professional to testify was Dr. Lynne Zager, a clinical psychologist and Director of the Forensic Services Program at Midtown Mental Health Center. Pursuant to a State-requested court order, Dr. Zager examined the defendant from October 1997 to January 1998 to determine both his competency to stand trial and his mental state at the time of the offenses. Dr. Zager testified that she interviewed the defendant four times, that the defendant suffered from a "severe, persistent mental illness," i.e., paranoid schizophrenia, and that due to the mental illness, the defendant could not appreciate the nature or wrongfulness of his conduct during the shootings on April 5, 1997.
Dr. Zager testified that persons suffering from schizophrenia form "false fixed beliefs," delusions, and possible hallucinations. She testified that the defendant claimed to hear voices that were broadcast to others and that the defendant believed the victims were responsible for the bombings in Oklahoma City and at the World Trade Center. She testified that the defendant believed that the victims were homosexuals who made him feel uncomfortable and that the defendant said that he had a list of 140 names of persons he had planned to kill. According to Dr. Zager, the defendant believed his actions "were to protect society, to protect himself, to protect his family."
The next expert to testify was Dr. Sam Craddock, a state-employed clinical psychologist at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute. Dr. Craddock testified that a team of mental health workers evaluated the defendant from November 17, 1997 to December 16, 1997; the evaluation team consisted of himself, a psychiatrist, a master's level social worker who gathered the defendant's social and medical histories, and nurses and technicians who observed the defendant's everyday conduct. Dr. Craddock explained that the "goal of the team is to come up with a diagnosis and to report back to the Court what we think the person's mental disability is, if there is one." He acknowledged that he most often testifies on behalf of the prosecution because his findings and conclusions frequently are not favorable to the defendant.
Dr. Craddock testified that he administered several psychological examinations to the defendant including the Shipley Institution of Learning Scale to measure verbal comprehension, a Booklet Category test to measure reasoning, a Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory, ("MMPI - II test"), and a Personal Assessment Inventory. Dr. Craddock testified that he evaluated each assessment for indicia of malingering and that the defendant's symptoms were genuine:
t times, it certainly came to my mind that he might be malingering. Just because I have test scores that say one thing. His parents provided input. And I'm not going to rule out the possibility, at any time, that he might be malingering. But, once I decided that I was looking at genuine symptoms, he expressed a number of delusional beliefs, false beliefs, ideas that had no basis in reality that things were going on that are consistent with somebody that has schizophrenia and particularly paranoid thinking.
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