State v. Applin

67 P.3d 1152, 116 Wash. App. 818
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMay 5, 2003
DocketNo. 49454-6-I
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 67 P.3d 1152 (State v. Applin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Applin, 67 P.3d 1152, 116 Wash. App. 818 (Wash. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

Ellington, J.

Blaine Applin killed Dan Jess. He asserted an insanity defense, contending he was acting under a delusional belief that he had received a direct command from God. He challenges the jury instructions, contending the court erred in refusing to define right and wrong. No such definition is generally required, however, and the evidence at trial did not call for a special instruction here. Applin’s other claimed errors are either invited or otherwise unreviewable. We therefore affirm.

FACTS

Blaine Applin was a member of the Gatekeepers, a cult led by Christopher Turgeon. Turgeon was a self-proclaimed prophet who claimed to be in direct communication with God. In 1997, Turgeon learned Child Protective Services was seeking to remove children from some members’ homes, so the Gatekeepers moved from Washington to southern California. To finance the move, Turgeon organized various schemes for thefts from local businesses, one of which involved issuing a forged check to Jaime’s Transmission in Snohomish. Efforts by Jaime’s Transmission to obtain payment eventually led the shop to contact Dan Jess.

Jess had recently left the Gatekeepers. He was upset at being implicated in the scam, and had a combative phone conversation with Turgeon, during which he accused Turgeon of being a false prophet. That evening, Turgeon [820]*820called a meeting of the male members of Gatekeepers. He told them he had heard the voice of God, and that God said Dan Jess must be killed.

Believing he was God’s “chosen vessel”1 to kill Jess, Applin volunteered to help, telling Turgeon, “God told me that I must be the one who does it.”2 He and Turgeon drove to Jess’s home in Washington. Applin knocked on Jess’s door. When Jess answered, Applin shot him numerous times. Turgeon and Applin returned to California and carried out several more robberies. They were eventually arrested and charged with first degree murder.

Applin asserted an insanity defense. The jury convicted him of first degree murder.

DISCUSSION

Washington has adopted the M’Naghten test for criminal insanity, which requires that a defendant be unable to tell the difference between right and wrong with reference to the particular act charged.3 The trial court gave two instructions on the defense in Applin’s and Turgeon’s trial. The first was the general pattern instruction, which tracked the statutory definition of insanity.4 The second set forth the so-called “deific decree” defense.

The general insanity instruction read in part:

For a defendant to be found not guilty by reason of insanity you must find that, as a result of mental disease or defect, the defendant’s mind was affected to such an extent that the defendant was unable to perceive the nature and quality of the acts with which the defendant is charged or was unable to tell [821]*821right from wrong with reference to the particular acts with which the defendant is charged.[5]

The deific decree instruction read:

A defendant is also not guilty by reason of insanity if you find that each of these elements has been proved by a preponderance of the evidence:

1) At the time of the acts charged the defendant had a mental disease or defect; and

2) As a result of that mental disease or defect, the defendant had a delusion that he had received a direct command from God to do the acts; and

3) The defendant did the acts because of that direct command; and

4) The direct command destroyed the defendant’s free will and his ability to distinguish right from wrong.[6]

In Washington the deific decree defense derives from State v. Crenshaw,7 in which the court described the defense as applicable when a defendant “performs a criminal act, knowing it is morally and legally wrong, but believing, because of a mental defect, that the act is ordained by God.”8 Applin contends that instructions on this defense must include a definition stating that wrongfulness refers to moral, as well as legal, wrong, and that failure to so instruct is reversible error. We turn first to Crenshaw.

Crenshaw had killed his wife, and asserted an insanity defense. He challenged the M’Naghten instruction given at trial, which stated the insanity test solely in terms of the defendant’s ability to understand legal wrong: “What is [822]*822meant by the terms ‘right and wrong’ refers to knowledge of a person at the time of committing an act that he was acting contrary to the law.”9 Crenshaw contended the instruction should not have defined “right and wrong” solely in the legal, as opposed to the moral, sense. In rejecting Crenshaw’s argument, the court observed that “it is society’s morals, and not the individual’s morals, that are the standard forjudging moral wrong under M’Naghten.”10 The court observed that “[o]nce moral wrong is equated with society’s morals, the next step, equating moral and legal wrong, follows logically. The law is, for the most part, an expression of collective morality.”11 Therefore, because “society’s moral judgment is identical with the legal standard,” a definition of wrongfulness is unnecessary in most insanity cases involving serious crimes, and an instruction defining wrong only in terms of legal wrong does not misstate the test.12

Crenshaw did not claim to have acted under divine command, and the court held he was therefore not entitled to a deific decree defense. In reaching its conclusion, the court discussed the origins and application of the defense, describing it as a “narrow exception to the societal standard of moral wrong.”13 In a case decided soon afterward, the court considered the propriety, in deific decree cases, of the instruction approved in Crenshaw.

In State v. Cameron, 100 Wn.2d 520, 674 P.2d 650 (1983), the defendant claimed he had killed his stepmother under the psychotic delusion that he had been directed by God to kill Satan’s angel. The trial court gave the same instruction given in Crenshaw, including the paragraph explaining wrongfulness solely in legal terms. Cameron contended that the term “right and wrong” should have been left [823]*823undefined, in accordance with the statutory definition of insanity.14 The Supreme Court agreed, and held that an instruction like that in Crenshaw is error in deific decree cases because it prevents the jury from considering “ ‘right and wrong1 in terms of one’s ability to understand the moral qualities of the act.”15 The court observed that “one who believes that he is acting under the direct command of God is no less insane because he nevertheless knows murder is prohibited by the laws of man. Indeed, it may actually emphasize his insanity.”16 In such cases, it is error to instruct that only inability to know of legal wrong satisfied the test.

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Related

State v. Chanthabouly
164 Wash. App. 104 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2011)
State v. Applin
82 P.3d 243 (Washington Supreme Court, 2004)

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Bluebook (online)
67 P.3d 1152, 116 Wash. App. 818, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-applin-washctapp-2003.