United States v. Hernandez

20 C.M.A. 219, 20 USCMA 219, 43 C.M.R. 59, 1970 CMA LEXIS 656, 1970 WL 7431
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedDecember 24, 1970
DocketNo. 22,898
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 20 C.M.A. 219 (United States v. Hernandez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Military Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Hernandez, 20 C.M.A. 219, 20 USCMA 219, 43 C.M.R. 59, 1970 CMA LEXIS 656, 1970 WL 7431 (cma 1970).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court

Darden, Judge:

A general court-martial at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base, Taiwan, found the appellant guilty of one specification of aggravated assault and one specification of assault with intent to commit rape. The court sentenced him to a bad-conduct discharge. The findings and the sentence were unchanged during earlier appellate review.

The first of two issues on which the Court granted review was whether the [220]*220military judge’s instructions on mental responsibility were prejudicially deficient.

At the trial the appellant testified that he had no recollection between the time of his drinking “7 straight shots of cognac” until the time Air Police apprehended him, during which time the offenses occurred. Dr. Martin, a defense psychiatrist, testified, and when asked at the Article 39(a), Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 839, session if he had noted any evidence of a mental defect in the appellant during his psychological testing and interview, responded: “No sir, I did not. In fact, his record is strikingly normal.” He found no evidence of cerebral deterioration, malfunction, or destruction. “[Ajlcohol in combination with his personality defect” caused Hernandez “to not be able to form a specific intent, or adhere to the right,” declared the doctor. He believed a derangement present, however, because the appellant had “a specific problem area with relation to women, specifically his mother, which could have been in operation at the time of the act, but would never have manifested itself were he not intoxicated.”

The defense psychiatrist gave this testimony during a subsequent out-of-court hearing:

“MJ: ... By derangement did you mean the character behavior disorder?
“WIT: No sir, I meant that a specific, unconscious problem, a derangement otherwise than personality may have erupted at the time of the severe intoxication.
“MJ: Then you are not talking about derangement, separate from the intoxication aspect?
“WIT: Yes I am. I am speaking of his feelings about women, and internal aggression towards women, under control all the time except in the instance of severe intoxication, a specific problem area separate and aside from diagnosis. Diagnoses are descriptive terms attempting to bring the widely divergent data together, but often does not direct one’s attention to a specific problem area. This is often discussed in the field as to what diagnosis means. I would separate my discussion concerning derangement from the diagnosis itself, which is a slightly different thing. To repeat, in the diagnosis I simply grouped all the features I could think of which describes this man all of the time, a passive dependent personality; but when focusing on the specific instance in question I am speaking of derangement in a different way.
“MJ: But are you talking about a derangement which took place as a result of the drinking?
“WIT: No, I’m speaking of derangement chronically present but which is completely under control, but because of the presence of alcohol was released from this control.”

In open court the defense psychiatrist gave the following testimony upon direct examination:

“Q. Dr. Martin, based upon your knowledge and experience, based upon your evaluation of Hernandez, do you have an opinion as to whether or not, on the night of 15 May, at about 9:00 P. M. Hernandez was able to distinguish right from wrong and adhere to the right, or had his ability to do that been destroyed because of his intoxication?
“A. Yes.
“Q. What is that opinion?
“A. That the degree of alcoholic intake was sufficient to intoxicate him sufficiently to destroy his ability to distinguish right from wrong and adhere to the right.”

In response to examination by the president, the defense psychiatrist responded in this way:

“Q. You expressed an opinion that the amount of alcohol referred to here could impair the faculties of an individual; now is it also possible an [221]*221individual could drink this much and still not have mental derangement?
“A. We had a session before court, sir, in which this was discussed slightly differently. The derangement is different from the accused’s general personality presentation. The derangement has to do with a specific underlying problem that he has, which I have specified, and this specific underlying problem is what I mean. It is this which erupted because of the intoxication that I am of the opinion gave rise to the act.”

But when the military judge invited the psychiatrist’s attention to the definition of the phrase “mental defect, disease, or derangement,”1 the witness responded:

“WIT: According to this, sir, it refers primarily to organic change in the brain and does not apply to my use of the word ‘derangement’ as a life-long problem which has persisted with Airman Hernandez for many, many years which erupted at the time. To speak of deterioration, destruction or malfunction of the mental faculties is to suggest something different than I am using. I would not use this in the context mentioned here. Answering your question, did he have that at the time; using the word in a new way and assuming it was the direct effect of alcohol on the brain cells, I would say ‘Yes’. Now I am using one word two different ways.
“Q. Now remember in your prior testimony we talked about this, and I must get it clear because the court is entitled to know and must know whether they are dealing merely with voluntary intoxication, completely drunk and thereby certain acts flowed from it and certain impairment of specific intent, or if they are dealing with legal insanity in the sense that the man had some sort of mental defect, disease or derangement in and of itself, not from voluntary intoxication.
“A. Now I would refer to my original use of the word. When you originally asked me you simply used the word, and there I meant he had a chronic emotional problem which was out of his awareness that erupted as a result of his intoxicated state. I could use the term psychopatho-logical nucleus instead of derangement. This is what I am really talking about.”

Although the psychiatrist switched from the use of the term “derangement” to “psychopathological nucleus” he was not questioned extensively on his opinion whether the latter term referred to a disease, defect, or derangement. It is difficult to understand how members of the court, having the ultimate responsibility for determining whether the mental condition of the appellant was a defect, disease, or derangement, could apply such a term when its meaning apparently is not clear to an expert. The military judge believed that the issue of mental responsibility had been raised, and he gave the standard instruction on it.

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Bluebook (online)
20 C.M.A. 219, 20 USCMA 219, 43 C.M.R. 59, 1970 CMA LEXIS 656, 1970 WL 7431, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-hernandez-cma-1970.