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People v. Mertz11/17/2005
of future dangerousness, and dysfunctional family." We find that defendant's death sentence was not excessive or in any sense "fundamentally unfair." As we have stated, the aggravating evidence against defendant was overwhelming; the mitigating evidence was, in our opinion, meager by comparison. The fact that the jury returned a death verdict in less than three hours is testament to the state of the evidence. We will address the elements of defendant's argument individually.
First, we note that defendant failed to demonstrate a connection between his violent behavior and the ingestion of either prescription drugs or the antimalarial drug Lariam. Defendant's contention that his behavior "may have been influenced by antidepressant medications" and "anti-malaria medication given to him in the Marines" is little more than speculation. The sole testimony concerning the possible side effects of Lariam and the prescription drugs defendant was taking came not from a psychiatrist or pharmacologist, but from a psychologist, Mark Cunningham, who possessed no particular expertise in the effects of prescription drugs. Cunningham's only knowledge of the medication's possible side effects came from pharmacological flyers. Cunningham's deficiencies aside, we note that defendant did not even establish that he was given Lariam, though Cunningham suggested that Lariam is the antimalarial drug of choice in the military. Even assuming defendant was given Lariam, Cunningham admitted he knew of no case in which the ingestion of Lariam had been connected to the commission of a murder. He conceded he could not "draw a * direct certain nexus" between Lariam and murder. Nevertheless, he maintained-without reference to supporting data or studies-that the possible use of Lariam, "several years" prior to the murder, might have been a "potential contributor." Cunningham also claimed that Paxil "could have some contributing role," without offering any meaningful substantiation. The fact that defendant may have reported occasional symptoms which matched the side effects Cunningham gleaned from pharmacological flyers does not, in our opinion, qualify as meaningful substantiation. The testimony defendant presented did not affirmatively link his violent behavior to prescription drugs or Lariam.
Next, we note that defendant's claim of "inherited" alcoholism is highly questionable in terms of credibility and, in our opinion, did little to help defendant at sentencing. Apparently, defendant believed he would be less blameworthy in the eyes of the jurors for his failure to seek help with his drinking problems, and his failure to earnestly try to overcome them, if he attributed the problems to genetics and family models. We believe defendant was mistaken in this respect. Moreover, the case defendant made for "inheriting" alcoholism is not convincing.
For example, the incredible amounts of alcohol purportedly imbibed by defendant's uncle on a daily basis, quite frankly, taxes credibility. Defendant's uncle, Michael Mahorney, testified that he, at one point in his life, consumed "three to four fifths a night plus a six-pack or twelve-pack of beer and three or four shots of tequila. And that was seven nights a week." Even if someone were to believe this implausible testimony, other aspects of Mahorney's testimony actually undercut defendant's claim. Mahorney testified that defendant's father drank, but Mahorney had only seen him drunk once in his life. Moreover, Mahorney testified that, despite heavy drinking during a portion of his life, he had only been arrested on one occasion for illegal consumption of alcohol, and his drinking never resulted in violent behavior. Mahorney's testimony thus points up the fact that violent beha
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