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Kiley v. State12/3/2003
efendant ingested cannabis, alcohol and cocaine and then attempted to assault a woman in a department store dressing room. He was restrained by bystanders and resisted police when they arrived. Here, after a night of drinking and consuming Xanax, Kiley bludgeoned the 21 year-old victim to death with a two-by-four. Kiley had known the victim for a couple of years and socialized almost every day.
At trial Gray attempted, as Kiley does here, to rely on a general insanity defense predicated on the situational effects of voluntary drug ingestion. As here, Gray offered an expert who opined that the drug intoxication rendered him temporarily incapable of knowing what he was doing or that his conduct was wrong. The Gray court explained:
"Although the expert applied the M'Naghten standard and found that Gray did not know what he was doing or the consequences of what he was doing and did not know right from wrong, it was because of the drugs voluntarily taken by him on that evening. Hence, the defense seems to be asserting a voluntary insanity defense. The problem is that Florida does not recognize such a defense. Just imagine how such a defense would affect driving under the influence related offenses. `I'm sorry they're all dead, but I was too drunk to know it was wrong to drive.'"
731 So. 2d at 818. As Judge Harris summed up:
"The state's argument properly pointed out that the cause of Gray's not knowing what he was doing or the consequence of what he was doing or not knowing that what he was doing was wrong was not because of a mental infirmity, disease or defect; it was because he voluntarily got drunk, a condition which did not constitute insanity." 731 So. 2d at 818. That analysis applies equally to defendant's post-conviction claim in this case and adequately explains why the trial judge did not err in failing to hold an evidentiary hearing on his amnesia-competency claim.
AFFIRMED.
KLEIN and GROSS, JJ., concur.
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