People v. Torry

571 N.E.2d 827, 212 Ill. App. 3d 759, 156 Ill. Dec. 847, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 584
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 8, 1991
Docket1-86-2847
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 571 N.E.2d 827 (People v. Torry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Torry, 571 N.E.2d 827, 212 Ill. App. 3d 759, 156 Ill. Dec. 847, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 584 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

JUSTICE O’CONNOR

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant Sedwrick Torry appeals from his conviction and sentence for the murder of Renee Ballard.

We affirm in part and vacate in part.

Sometime in the early morning hours of June 14, 1984, Renee Ballard and her five-year-old son, Lavell, were stabbed to death in the apartment Ballard shared with Robert Brandon, defendant’s brother. Defendant was arrested later that morning. He subsequently gave oral and written statements to police in which he admitted stabbing Ballard during an argument. Following a bench trial in which defendant’s written statement was admitted into evidence, defendant was convicted of murdering Ballard, but was acquitted of murdering her son.

Additional facts pertinent to disposition of the issues raised on appeal are summarized below within the context of our consideration of those issues.

I

Prior to trial, defendant was examined by Dr. Robert A. Reifman, director of the Psychiatric Institute of the Cook County circuit court, pursuant to a court order, to determine whether defendant was mentally fit to stand trial. Reifman concluded defendant was fit and communicated that opinion to the court in a letter dated February 27, 1985.

A fitness hearing was subsequently held. Reifman testified as the sole witness based upon an interview he conducted with defendant and his review of reports of two psychologists, Holub and Kamer, EEC test results, reports of two other doctors, Rabin and Stipes, and police reports.

Reifman testified defendant understood the proceedings and the charges against him, the consequences of a judgment and sentence, the functions of the participants, and was able to recollect and repeat the occurrences involved within acceptable limits. Although defendant appeared “somewhat slow and depressed,” Reifman concluded defendant was fit to stand trial.

Reifman believed defendant exhibited a selective memory. Reifman noted a report of Holub and Kamer indicated defendant remembered certain facts surrounding Ballard’s murder. He remembered being at Ballard’s apartment and using certain drugs. He remembered that the police arrived, and that, after his arrest, the police failed to advise him of his constitutional rights. However, defendant had represented to Reifman that he could not recall anything he had earlier told Holub and Kamer.

Reifman explained that, even if defendant truly experienced memory difficulties, Reifman would have expected defendant to be able to remember facts he had earlier recounted. Reifman therefore con-eluded defendant was lying about his inability to remember and that that suggested his mental fitness.

On appeal, defendant argues Reifman’s testimony lacked an adequate foundation because Reifman did not sufficiently identify the materials he relied upon in forming his opinion or establish they were either independently admissible or of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in the particular field. Without an adequate foundation, defendant contends, Reifman’s testimony should have been excluded.

We do not agree. Pursuant to the adoption of Federal Rules of Evidence 703 and 705 in Illinois (Wilson v. Clark (1981), 84 Ill. 2d 186, 417 N.E.2d 1322, cert. denied (1981), 454 U.S. 836, 70 L. Ed. 2d 117, 102 S. Ct. 140), the constraints on eliciting an expert’s opinion have been considerably loosened. Experts are permitted to give their opinion without prior disclosure of underlying facts or data. (Wilson, 84 Ill. 2d 186, 417 N.E.2d 1322, cert. denied (1981), 454 U.S. 836, 70 L. Ed. 2d 117, 102 S. Ct. 140.) Even materials otherwise substantively inadmissible may be admitted into evidence for the limited purpose of explaining the basis for an expert’s opinion, where other experts in the particular field reasonably rely on such materials. (People v. Anderson (1986), 113 Ill. 2d 1, 495 N.E.2d 485, cert. denied (1986), 479 U.S. 1012, 93 L. Ed. 2d 713, 107 S. Ct. 658; Wilson, 84 Ill. 2d 186, 417 N.E.2d 1322, cert. denied (1981), 454 U.S. 836, 70 L. Ed. 2d 117, 102 S. Ct. 140.) The burden is placed on the adverse party to elicit facts underlying the expert’s opinion. Wilson, 84 Ill. 2d 186, 417 N.E.2d 1322, cert. denied (1981), 454 U.S. 836, 70 L. Ed. 2d 117,102 S. Ct. 140.

In the instant case, the State was simply not required to elicit, from Reifman, the basis for his opinion. Defendant’s counsel bore that burden in challenging Reifman’s testimony during cross-examination. Further, there is no question but that Reifman properly could have utilized the reports of Holub, Earner, Rabin, and Stipes, and defendant’s EEC test results in forming his opinion. Reports and test results of previous examinations of an individual by medical professionals are clearly materials relied upon by others in the same field to formulate opinions regarding that same individual.

Although we cannot conclude Reifman’s reliance on police reports can be similarly justified, we do not find the admission of his testimony related thereto constitutes reversible error. Reifman’s opinion that defendant was lying about his inability to remember, which in part supported the determination of defendant’s fitness, was based on Reifman’s analysis of defendant’s earlier recounting of particular events of January 14, 1984, contained in the report of Holub and Eamer. The record indicates Reifman relied on the police reports for the same purpose. Because Reifman’s conclusion that defendant selectively remembered events did not depend on Reifman’s testimony related to the police reports alone, we conclude admission of that testimony was harmless. See People v. Smith (1981), 93 Ill. App. 3d 26, 416 N.E.2d 814.

Defendant also argues that the letter stating Reifman’s opinion that defendant was mentally fit to stand trial failed to comport with the statutory requirements of an examiner’s report under section 104 — 15 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963, because it did not contain a diagnosis and supporting information. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 38, par. 104 — 15.

Even accepting defendant’s argument, we do not conclude that that failure here could affect Reifman’s testimony. The report is required only in conjunction with the prehearing examination of a defendant to determine if a bona fide doubt as to fitness exists. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 38, par. 104—11; see also Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 38, par. 104—16(a).) We do not understand how the letter’s failure to comport with the requirements of section 104 — 15 could affect the determination of fitness in light of the subsequent hearing on the issue.

Defendant lastly contends Reifman’s testimony was insufficient to establish defendant’s fitness by a preponderance of the evidence. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 38, par.

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Bluebook (online)
571 N.E.2d 827, 212 Ill. App. 3d 759, 156 Ill. Dec. 847, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 584, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-torry-illappct-1991.