Robertson v. State

802 S.W.2d 920, 304 Ark. 332, 1991 Ark. LEXIS 17
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 22, 1991
DocketCR 90-117
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 802 S.W.2d 920 (Robertson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robertson v. State, 802 S.W.2d 920, 304 Ark. 332, 1991 Ark. LEXIS 17 (Ark. 1991).

Opinion

Tom Glaze, Justice.

This is the appellant’s second appeal. In his first, we reversed his conviction of capital murder for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Our reversal was based upon the trial court’s refusal to rule on whether appellant was mentally competent to stand trial. Robertson v. State, 298 Ark. 131, 765 S.W.2d 936 (1989). On remand, the trial court determined the appellant was competent, and after receiving a second trial, appellant again was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. In this second appeal, he advances three points for reversal, but we hold none of them have merit. In considering appellant’s arguments, we need not repeat the details of the murder committed by the appellant since those facts are sufficiently set out in our earlier decision and a further recount of the crime is unnecessary in disposing of appellant’s present arguments.

Appellant’s main argument concerns his affirmative defense asserted at trial that he was not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. More particularly, appellant contends that there is insufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding that he was sane or had the mental capacity necessary to perform the crime.

It is well settled that appellant had the burden of establishing his affirmative defense by a preponderance of evidence. Campbell v. State, 265 Ark. 77, 576 S.W.2d 938 (1979). On appeal from a jury verdict rejecting an insanity defense the issue is whether there is any substantial evidence to support the verdict. Couch v. State, 274 Ark. 29, 621 S.W.2d 694 (1981).

Because much of the appellant’s argument relies upon the testimony given in his behalf by four experts in the psychiatric field, we note the rule that a jury is not bound to accept opinion testimony of experts as conclusive, and it is not compelled to believe their testimony any more than the testimony of other witnesses. Gruzen v. State, 267 Ark. 380, 591 S.W.2d 342 (1979). In fact, we have said that, even when several competent experts concur in their opinions and no opposing expert evidence is offered, the jury is still bound to decide the issue upon its own fair judgment. Id. Testimony of expert witnesses is to be considered by the jury in the same manner as other testimony and in the light of other testimony and circumstances in the case; the jury alone determines its value and weight, and may, under the same rules governing other evidence, reject or accept all or any part thereof as they may believe it to be true or false. Id.

No useful purpose would be served by a review of all the testimony relevant to appellant’s insanity defense, other than to show that there was substantial evidence to support the jury verdict. In this respect, the state presented testimony from Dr. John Christopher Morino, a staff psychiatrist with the State Mental Hospital. Dr. Morino related that, during his meeting with and evaluation of appellant, the appellant recalled and recited in detail the events leading to his stabbing of the victim in her eyes with a pair of scissors. He said that he had a memory lapse and the next thing he remembered was that his left hand was around the victim’s throat and his right hand had a pair of scissors in it. Appellant then attempted to flee the scene. Morino opined his evaluation revealed the appellant was neither schizophrenic nor psychotic at the time he killed his victim. Further, Dr. Morino stated that the appellant’s history of substance abuse made a diagnosis of schizophrenia impossible.

Appellant offered four psychiatric experts whose testimonies conflicted with Morino’s. In sum, those experts concluded appellant was schizophrenic and could not tell right from wrong at the time he committed the crime. Through those same experts and appellant’s thorough cross-examination of Dr. Morino, appellant attacked what he perceived to be the weaknesses in Morino’s one-day evaluation and the opinion he reached from it. Such proof, of course, has a bearing on the weight to be given Dr. Morino’s testimony, but not on its substantiality. Campbell, 265 Ark. 77, 576 S.W.2d 938. Here, the jury clearly disregarded the appellant’s expert testimony and believed Morino’s. This is within the jury’s province. Thus, we reject appellant’s argument on this point.

Appellant’s second argument generally concerns whether the jury was improperly exposed to certain remarks made by the prosecutor and his other questions and testimony that dealt with what disposition would be made of appellant if appellant was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In his brief, appellant sets out four separate incidents but his first and main contention seems to focus on the prosecutor’s cross-examination of one of appellant’s psychologists, Dr. Martin. That short colloquy was as follows:

Q. I certainly hope, Doctor, that the jury thinks that if the defendant is schizophrenic, he’s not supposed to be in prison. You don’t believe that, do you?
A. I believe that when a person is schizophrenic and actively schizophrenic and in need of treatment to help control those symptoms, they need to be in as controlled a setting as necessary to effect that treatment. . .We think in terms of treatment as being from the least restrictive to the most restrictive. The least restrictive form of treatment is voluntary outpatient care. It’s the kind of care that you use, when you go to your family doctor. That’s the least restrictive form of care. The most restrictive form of care is when either there is a civil or a criminal commitment. A person is placed in an institutional setting against their will and receives care, even though they don’t voluntarily want it. That’s the most restrictive.
Q. That can’t be done in Arkansas, can it?

Actually, in reading the prosecutor’s questions, we are not sure what point he was attempting to make. Nonetheless, appellant’s counsel objected on the basis that the prosecutor misstated the law by stating the prosecutor was trying to say that “you can’t criminally commit somebody to the penitentiary.” The prosecutor responded, saying “he didn’t say that.” At that point, appellant moved for a mistrial. In denying appellant’s objection and motion, the trial judge resolved the matter by instructing the jury to disregard the disputed questions and answer and in addition admonished the jury as follows:

As I said, the jury does not have the responsibility to determine what kind of treatment is supposed to be given a person if he is mentally incompetent. That’s not put before you. What’s before the jury is the guilt or innocence of Mr. Robertson on a capital felony charge. That’s what’s before the jury.

We have held that the jury is not to be told the options available to the trial court when a defendant is found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. Love v. State, 281 Ark. 379, 664 S.W.2d 457 (1984).

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Bluebook (online)
802 S.W.2d 920, 304 Ark. 332, 1991 Ark. LEXIS 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robertson-v-state-ark-1991.