People v. Burney

115 Cal. App. 3d 497, 171 Cal. Rptr. 329, 1981 Cal. App. LEXIS 1335
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 9, 1981
DocketCrim. 4204
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 115 Cal. App. 3d 497 (People v. Burney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Burney, 115 Cal. App. 3d 497, 171 Cal. Rptr. 329, 1981 Cal. App. LEXIS 1335 (Cal. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

*502 Opinion

HAMMERBERG, J. *

Appellant was convicted after a nonjury trial of voluntary manslaughter (Pen. Code, § 192, subd. 1) with the use of a firearm (Pen. Code, § 12022.5) and assault with a deadly weapon (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)) with personal use of a handgun. Appellant was found sane on her not guilty by reason of insanity plea.

On August 12, 1978, at approximately 2:30 a.m. in Wagner’s, a bar in West Fresno, appellant shot Willie Mae Williams, and then immediately shot through a crowd of patrons and hit Lester Grant which resulted in his death. The shooting was the result of a quarrel which involved shoving, pushing, and slapping. The victims were unarmed and the provocation was minimal.

Mental Competence to Stand Trial

Appellant contends that there was substantial evidence to warrant the trial judge to sua sponte order a hearing on appellant’s mental competency to stand trial.

Penal Code section 1368, subdivision (a), provides in relevant part that: “(a) If, during the pendency of an action and prior to judgment, a doubt arises in the mind of the judge as to the mental competence of the defendant, he shall state that doubt in the record and inquire of the attorney for the defendant whether, in the opinion of the attorney, the defendant is mentally competent.”

Appellant relies on Pate v. Robinson (1966) 383 U.S. 375 [15 L.Ed.2d 815, 86 S.Ct. 836], which stands for the proposition that an accused has a constitutional right to a hearing on present sanity if he comes forward with substantial evidence that he is incapable, because of mental illness, of understanding the nature of the proceedings against him or of assisting in his defense. Once such substantial evidence appears, a doubt as to the sanity of the accused exists and a hearing is mandatory no matter how persuasive other evidence, testimony of prosecution’s witnesses, or the court’s own observations of the accused may be to the contrary. (People v. Pennington (1967) 66 Cal.2d 508, 518 [58 Cal.Rptr. 374, 426 P.2d 942].)

*503 What constitutes substantial evidence in a proceeding under section 1368 cannot be answered by a simple formula applicable to all situations. (People v. Laudermilk (1967) 67 Cal.2d 272, 283 [61 Cal.Rptr. 644, 431 P.2d 228], cert. den. 393 U.S. 861 [21 L.Ed.2d 128, 89 S.Ct. 139].) Where there is no substantial evidence to raise the required doubt in the mind of the trial judge the failure to proceed under section 1368 sua sponte is not error. More is required to raise a doubt than mere bizarre actions, or bizarre statements, or statements of defense counsel that defendant is incapable of cooperating in his defense, or psychiatric testimony that defendant is immature, dangerous, psychopathic, or homicidal or such diagnosis with little reference to defendant’s ability to assist in his own defense. (Id., at p. 285.) It is not enough that an expert state that the defendant is mentally ill or insane to satisfy the substantial evidence test. (People v. Zatko (1978) 80 Cal.App.3d 534, 548 [145 Cal.Rptr. 643].) The expert must state with particularity that in his professional opinion the accused is, because of mental illness, incapable of understanding the purpose or nature of the criminal proceedings being taken against him or is incapable of assisting in his defense or cooperating with counsel. (People v. Pennington, supra, 66 Cal.2d 508, 519 [58 Cal.Rptr. 374, 426 P.2d 942].) However, a single doctor’s report which concludes that the defendant is incapable of standing trial, even in the face of other reports to the contrary, is substantial evidence requiring that a section 1368 proceeding be instituted. (People v. Zatko, supra, 80 Cal.App.3d 534, 547.)

Appellant relies on the testimony of two of the three psychiatrists who testified at the sanity phase of her trial. Initially it should be noted that the doctors were directing their opinions to a different time frame, i.e., to the time of the offense rather than to present mental incompetence, as well as to a different criteria, i.e., the American Law Institute test adopted in People v. Drew (1978) 22 Cal.3d 333 [149 Cal.Rptr. 275, 583 P.2d 1318], which relates to guilt, while section 1368, present mental incompetence, relates to understanding the proceedings and assisting counsel to conduct a defense in a rational manner.

The record does not indicate that at any time cognizable to the trial judge a section 1368 hearing should have been commenced. No psychiatrist expressed an opinion that the defendant was incompetent to stand trial.

*504 Appellant is in essence asking this court to infer that there is substantial evidence of incompetence from evidence that was addressed to a different subject, and a different time. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to examine the testimony and the reports of the psychiatrists. Dr. Trevor Glenn, who examined the appellant twice, found that she suffered from a chronic brain syndrome which included deficits in memory, orientation, judgment, intellectual functioning, and rapid mood fluctuations. She was unable to recall who was the current President of the United States, thinking first it was Roosevelt and then Kennedy. She suffered from visual and auditory hallucinations at his second examination. In explaining his observations Dr. Glenn testified that the delusional feelings of the appellant related to one woman (the victim). Dr. Glenn was explaining his view on how the appellant thought she was acting in self-defense, and how that was applicable to the American Law Institute test relative to guilt. Dr. Glenn did not express an opinion that she was unable to understand the nature of the proceedings, or to assist counsel in conducting a defense in a rational manner.

Although the issue at the trial was competence as it affects criminal conduct, Dr. Simmang offered the following in a report (and testified to the same in substance at trial) that: “It is my medical opinion that although Ella May Burney, defendant, has a severe mental disorder in partial remission, she is capable of understanding the nature of the charges against her and to cooperate with her counsel in the conduct of her defense in a rational manner.” Dr. Levy is the least help to the appellant. It was his opinion that the appellant must be considered to be completely sane from a legal standpoint, and that her mental status at the time of the shooting was such that she would have been aware of the criminality of any actions that she may have undertaken to conform her conduct to the requirements of law.

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Bluebook (online)
115 Cal. App. 3d 497, 171 Cal. Rptr. 329, 1981 Cal. App. LEXIS 1335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-burney-calctapp-1981.