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State v. Flake8/5/2003
half years and that the defendant was not malingering or feigning a mental illness.
Finally, Dr. John Hutson, a clinical psychologist employed by the defense, testified that he interviewed the defendant on April 8, 1997, and later interviewed the defendant and his parents on numerous occasions. The defendant was "very difficult to interview," "very disturbed," and "hard to keep focused." Dr. Hutson evaluated the defendant, reviewed his lengthy history of mental illness, and administered several tests. He testified that the defendant's results on an MMPI-II test showed that "he was very disturbed, extremely disturbed actually," and that "the paranoia scale and the schizophrenia scale were elevated well beyond the level of psychopathology." Dr. Hutson further explained that the results did not indicate that the defendant was malingering.
Dr. Hutson concluded that the defendant had either paranoid schizophrenia or chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia and could not appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions on April 5, 1997. Dr. Hutson testified that the defendant had "delusions, hallucinations, occasional disorganized speech and virtually no affect," and that the defendant believed that he was working as a government agent when he shot and killed the victims. Dr. Hutson testified that the defendant was "one of the three most disturbed criminal defendants" that he had ever seen among the over 10,000 persons he had evaluated in his career as a mental health professional.
Not a single expert witness testified on behalf of the prosecution.
Accordingly, all of the mental health professionals who completed lengthy, comprehensive evaluations of the defendant consistently determined that he suffered from a severe mental illness. Six mental health experts concluded that the defendant suffered from the severe mental illness of paranoid schizophrenia and was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct on April 5, 1997. These professionals had years of experience in conducting competency and mental state evaluations. Five of the expert witnesses were employed by the State of Tennessee and had no motive to provide testimony favorable to the defense; indeed, Dr. Craddock testified that he nearly always testifies on behalf of the prosecution because his conclusions are rarely helpful to the defendant.
In contrast, the State presented no lay or expert testimony showing either that the defendant did not have a severe mental illness or that he could appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct at the time of the offenses.
III.
It is with this overwhelming evidentiary record in mind that I turn to the issue of whether the jury reasonably found that the defendant's insanity at the time of the offenses was not established by clear and convincing evidence. The majority applies the standard under Flake I, yet concludes that the jury's verdict was supported by the evidence. I disagree.
The majority argues that the defendant's sanity was demonstrated by his ability to obtain a handgun and his "forethought" in providing false answers on the purchase application and background check. There was no evidence, however, that a person suffering from paranoid schizophrenia would be incapable of such conduct; indeed, all of the expert testimony indicated that a person with schizophrenia is capable of acting "normally" at times, just as the defendant appeared "normal" to Turner Carpenter seconds before he was shot. Moreover, the defendant's conduct in applying for and obtaining a handgun was initiated weeks before the crimes and shed no light on his mental state at the time of the offenses.
The prosecution offered no eyewitness
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