State v. Chase

378 N.E.2d 1064, 55 Ohio St. 2d 237, 9 Ohio Op. 3d 180, 1978 Ohio LEXIS 639
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 2, 1978
DocketNo. 76-1254
StatusPublished
Cited by69 cases

This text of 378 N.E.2d 1064 (State v. Chase) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Chase, 378 N.E.2d 1064, 55 Ohio St. 2d 237, 9 Ohio Op. 3d 180, 1978 Ohio LEXIS 639 (Ohio 1978).

Opinions

O’Neill, C. J.

The trial judge instructed the jury as follows: “In order to establish a defense of insanity the accused must establish that a disease or other defect of his mind had so impaired his reason that at the time of the criminal act with which he is charged either he did not know that such act was wrong or he did not have the ability to refrain from doing that act.”

This charge was erroneous under R. C. 2901.05(A). State v. Robinson (1976), 47 Ohio St. 2d 103, 351 N. E. 2d 88; State v. Meyer, decided with State v. Humphries (1977), 51 Ohio St. 2d 95, 364 N. E. 2d 1354.1 Under the statute, a defendant who pleads not guilty by reason of insanity has the burden of going forward with evidence of a nature and quality sufficient to raise the defense before the jury. Under the statute, the correct rule is that once the defendant has presented evidence of a nature and quality sufficient to raise the defense before the jury, the jury must consider all of the evidence in the case from whatever source, including all of the evidence as to the affirmative defense; and if they entertain any reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt, they must acquit. If they entertain no reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt, they must convict.2

[243]*243The instruction in the present case suggested that the jury could not acquit the defendant unless he actually “established” the defense in the jury’s mind by some unspecified quantum of proof. Thus the instruction imposed on the defendant a greater burden of proof than the law allows, and it was, therefore, prejudicial error. State v. Hauser (1920), 101 Ohio St. 404, 407, 131 N. E. 66, 67; Kelch v. State (1896), 55 Ohio St. 146, 45 N. E. 6. See, also, the civil cases of Schwartz v. Badila (1938), 133 Ohio St. 441, 14 N. E. 2d 609; Indus. Comm. v. Ripke (1935), 129 Ohio St. 649, 196 N. E. 640; Cleveland Ry. Co. v. Goldman (1930), 122 Ohio St. 73, 170 N. E. 641; Montanari v. Haworth (1923), 108 Ohio St. 8, 140 N. E. 319.

The jury propounded seven questions in their attempt to understand the court’s charge as to the burden of proof on the affirmative defense. The court’s answers to those questions compounded the error in the charge. In answer to one question, the court stated that the defendant had no burden of proof regarding insanity. In answer to another question the court said that the state had no such burden. These two answers are incomplete and, thus, misleading. It is generally true that the burden of initial production on a given issue can be assigned to one party or the other. But once an issue is properly before the trier of fact, the crucial question is no longer which party has the burden of proof, but rather the standard by which the trier of fact is permitted to draw inferences from the evidence as a whole. As Wigmore says, “After * * * the jury has retired to reach and frame its decision, a question arises as to the quality, or degree, of its persuasion. Here, it is to be noticed, we are no longer concerned with the incidence of the duty or burden of proof as between the parties to the cause, but merely with the tribunal’s own duty and conduct as to its standard of persuasion.” (Emphasis sic.) 9 Wigmore on Evidence (3 Ed.), 316, Section 2497. In the [244]*244present ease, the court’s answers to the jury’s questions came close to explaining this, but they omitted the vital information which the jury needed in order to decide on the affirmative defense. They omitted any explanation of the standard by which the jury must decide that issue. The court did not explain that when the trier of fact has considered all of the evidence, including all of the evidence as to the affirmative defense, the trier of fact must acquit the defendant if the trier of fact entertains a reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s guilt, or if the trier of the fact entertains no reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s guilt, the trier of fact must convict the defendant. For these reasons the judgment must be reversed.

The appellant also argues that the verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence because the defense evidence on the issue of insanity was “substantial,” “credible,” and “essentially unimpeached and unrebutted.” Actually, however, the state offered a rebuttal witness who questioned the diagnosis advanced by the psychiatrist who testified for the defense. The evidence as a whole was such that reasonable jurors, properly instructed, could have disagreed as to the appellant’s sanity. Thus, the issue of insanity was a question for the jury, and this court can not now hold that the defendant was entitled to acquittal as a matter of law on the evidence presented on the question of insanity at the time of commission of the crime.

The other important point in this case is whether the self-incriminating statements which the appellant made under interrogation by the police were properly admitted in evidence.

The first question in this regard is whether the appellant’s statements should have been excluded under Miranda v. Arizona (1966), 384 U. S. 436. Miranda applies to ‘‘questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way.” Miranda, supra, at 444. As the statement of facts shows, there can be no real disagreement that the appellant’s freedom [245]*245of action was restricted significantly at all times after his first encounter with Detective Lower in his apartment. Lower asked the appellant to wear certain clothes, told him not to take his car keys with him, and later refused to let his friend speak to him on the telephone, even though he was in the room when one of the calls came through. The appellant was transported twice in police vehicles, and from about 10:45 a. m. until just after he confessed, late in the evening, he saw no one except police personnel. The state insists that the appellant was free to leave the custody of the police at any time, but this fact was never communicated to the appellant.

The record is equally clear, though, that the police formally complied with the Miranda requirements. The appellant twice heard the warnings and twice waived, in writing, his right to remain silent and his right to have an attorney present. Moreover, the appellant at least once, and perhaps twice, declined Detective Lower’s offer to let him speak to someone besides Lower, such as an attorney.

Nevertheless, a waiver of the right to counsel is ineffective unless made knowingly and intelligently. See Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972), 407 U. S. 25; State v. Wellman (1974), 37 Ohio St. 2d 162, 309 N. E. 2d 915. The appellant argues that his waivers were no longer knowing and intelligent after the police concealed the fact that two attorneys had been to the station and had asked to see the appellant. This was one of the grounds on which the trial court held the appellant’s statements inadmissible. The Court of Appeals, however, properly reversed on this point.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
378 N.E.2d 1064, 55 Ohio St. 2d 237, 9 Ohio Op. 3d 180, 1978 Ohio LEXIS 639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-chase-ohio-1978.