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State v. Flake8/5/2003
view, the entire quote reveals that the statement relied upon by the majority simply refers to Dr. Craddock's state of mind during the examination and testing of the defendant and not to his conclusion after completing the evaluation. Indeed, Dr. Craddock's very next sentence indicated that he "decided that was looking at genuine symptoms" and that the defendant "expressed a number of delusional beliefs, false beliefs that had no basis in reality. . . ."
The majority also relies upon a statement made by John Perry, the mental health services coordinator at the Shelby County Jail, who allegedly told Dr. Zager that the defendant "was not really sick." Neither Perry's medical qualifications nor the basis for his conclusions are found in the record. Indeed, it is telling that the prosecution did not present Perry as a witness in its case in chief.
In short, not a single mental health expert concluded that the defendant was malingering, and not a single mental health expert testified that the defendant's failure to report auditory hallucinations before the offenses affected the question of whether he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Accordingly, the evidence cited by the majority did not refute the evidence of the defendant's serious mental illness or his inability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions at the time the offenses were committed.
This was not a case in which expert witnesses offered different opinions regarding the defendant's mental state. All were unanimous in the view that the defendant suffered from a severe mental illness, schizophrenia, and that he could not appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct. This is also not a case in which there was lay testimony regarding the facts and circumstances of the offenses that created reasonable inferences that differed from the expert testimony. In short, I once again find no basis in this record for the jury to have reasonably rejected the expert and lay evidence regarding the defendant's serious mental illness and his inability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his acts at the time of the offense.
As I feared in Flake I, the majority's application of the standard of review to the even stronger evidence of insanity in this case has once more rendered appellate review of the jury's verdict all but meaningless. Indeed, it is now difficult to imagine a case that will warrant a reversal of the jury's verdict on the issue of insanity.
Accordingly, I disagree with the majority's conclusion and would affirm the Court of Criminal Appeals' determination that no reasonable trier of fact could have failed to find that the defendant's insanity at the time of the offense was established by clear and convincing evidence.
E. RILEY ANDERSON, JUSTICE
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