State v. Price

403 So. 2d 660
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedSeptember 8, 1981
Docket80-KA-2616
StatusPublished
Cited by51 cases

This text of 403 So. 2d 660 (State v. Price) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Price, 403 So. 2d 660 (La. 1981).

Opinion

403 So.2d 660 (1981)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Arthur PRICE.

No. 80-KA-2616.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

September 8, 1981.

*661 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., John M. Mamoulides, Dist. Atty., Abbott J. Reeves, William W. Hall, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.

Robert Garrity, New Orleans, Indigent Defender Bd., for defendant-appellant.

DIXON, Chief Justice.

Defendant was convicted of armed robbery (R.S. 14:64) and was sentenced to thirty years imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension.

The chief issue in this appeal is whether defendant successfully presented a defense of insanity.[1] For the purposes of *662 criminal liability, insanity is defined as a mental disease or defect that renders a person "incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong with reference to the conduct in question." R.S. 14:14. A defendant is entitled to a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity if it is proved, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he was insane at the time of the offense. C.Cr.P. 652. Defendant contends that he met his burden of proof, and that the jury's unanimous verdict was contrary to the evidence.

I

In reviewing such claims of insufficiency of evidence in regard to a defense of insanity, this court has applied the test established in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), in accord with the rule announced in Moore v. Duckworth, 443 U.S. 713, 99 S.Ct. 3088, 61 L.Ed.2d 865 (1979). See State v. Liner, 397 So.2d 506 (La.1981); State v. Hathorn, 395 So.2d 783 (La.1981); State v. Claibon, 395 So.2d 770 (La.1981); State v. Roy, 395 So.2d 664 (La.1981). Under the Jackson standard, the test is whether a rational trier of fact, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, could conclude that the crime was proved beyond a reasonable doubt. When this standard is applied to the review of evidence adduced in support of the defense of insanity, which is the defendant's burden to prove, the question becomes whether any rational fact finder, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, could find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant failed to present a preponderance of proof in support of the defense. That is, a defendant might fail to adduce any proof in support of the defense, or the prosecution might effectively rebut any evidence presented.

Only two witnesses testified in defendant's behalf: Mrs. Jones, defendant's foster mother, and Dr. Arneson, a psychiatrist. Mrs. Jones, who had raised defendant since his infancy, reported that defendant's behavior had become erratic in the months prior to the robbery: he withdrew from his friends and family and remained secluded in his room; he refused to engage in conversation; he lost his appetite; and he took long walks alone. She also testified that defendant had left one job, stating that his nerves were upset, and that he never stayed on other jobs longer than a few days. Dr. Arneson, accepted as an expert witness in the field of psychiatry, had examined defendant on four occasions. She declared that defendant was psychotic, and suffered from manic-depressive episodes. According to Dr. Arneson, this condition causes extreme changes of mood: the person who suffers from such an affliction alternates between periods of deep depression and withdrawal to periods of high excitement and manic behavior. After hearing Mrs. Jones' testimony, Dr. Arneson concluded that defendant's emotional state was probably in the latter extreme when the robbery occurred, and that he was operating under a grandiose delusion. Dr. Arneson affirmatively stated that, considering defendant's probable mental condition at the time the *663 crime was committed, he would not have known the difference between right and wrong "in the usual sense."

On cross-examination, Dr. Arneson explained:

"I would say when a patient is in a manic episode they exhibit what we call grandiosity, they feel they can get away with or do anything. You know, some say they can fly or jump out the window, that sort of thing. And, I think that Mr. Price was high and he was excited and he felt that he could probably do this and he was having some financial difficulty or something, and he just went ahead, in a very psychotic manner, went ahead to rob this bank."

As to determining the difference between right and wrong, Dr. Arneson stated that psychotic individuals usually are affected by a "delusion that they can do anything and it is not wrong because they are so powerful and so on. In this sense they don't appreciate right from wrong in the ordinary every day way."

The prosecution presented no expert testimony to contradict the defense of insanity. However, the prosecution did rely upon the factual circumstances of the case to rebut Dr. Arneson's conclusions.

Defendant robbed the bank with a kitchen knife, jumping over a counter and taking cash from a teller's drawer. In removing one stack of bills, defendant picked up and then replaced a device (known as "bait money") which, although disguised as money, actually contains a package of dye designed to explode if removed from the bank. The teller testified that defendant told her to be quiet and not to move, and that he did not want to have to hurt anyone. After defendant took the money from the drawer, he again leaped over the counter and reportedly repeated his statement that he did not want to hurt anyone.

Defendant was apprehended a short while later at his home. He had stuffed a paper bag containing the money into a hole in the ceiling. Defendant told the police that the money was his savings.

Despite Dr. Arneson's assertion that these facts did not change her opinion of defendant's insanity at the time of the offense, the facts did provide the jury with a number of reasons for concluding that defendant was not insane, and that he was aware that what he was doing was "wrong." It ought to be noted that, in the jurisprudence of this state, there is some confusion as to whether the terms "right" and "wrong," as used in R.S. 14:14, refer to legal or moral values. See State v. Abercrombie, 375 So.2d 1170 (La.1979). There has also been substantial criticism of the century old rule defining legal insanity in terms of a defendant's perception of right and wrong. It is thought that the rule is outmoded in terms of the present state of medical knowledge concerning insanity, and that the terminology of the rule is essentially meaningless. See, e. g., LaFave & Scott, Criminal Law, § 37 at 280-83 (1972); McNamara, "The Insanity Defense in Louisiana," 12 Loy.L.Rev. 19 (1965-66); Morrow, "Louisiana Criminal Code," 17 Tul.L. Rev. 1, 15-17 (1942); Comment, "Legal Insanity and the Law of Crimes," 29 Tul.L. Rev. 576 (1955).

In the present case, defendant proved by a preponderance of evidence that he suffered from a mental disease or defect. His criminal conduct was perhaps prompted by his mental condition. However, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, the record belies the assertion that defendant was not aware of the criminality of his actions, and that defendant's mental status prevented him from being aware that his conduct was forbidden by society both legally and "morally." At least two points are significant.

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403 So. 2d 660, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-price-la-1981.