Davis v. CommonwealthDavis v. Commonwealth
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On March 28, 1973 the trial court entered final judgment upon thе jury’s verdict finding Otis Hunt Davis (defendant) guilty of murder of the first degreе and fixing his punishment at life in the penitentiary. Defendant, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, chаllenges the trial court’s refusal to grant an irresistible impulse instruction.
The evidence showed that defendant, in an unprovoked attack, stabbed аnd killed Gene Smith as he sat on a stool at the counter of the Greenleaf Cafe. Medical expert witnesses testified that defendant was nоt feebleminded or psychotic but was subject tо grand mal *682 seizures or psychomotor seizures; thаt during a grand mal seizure the victim loses consciоusness, cannot respond to outside stimuli, and his bodily movements are random, jerky and uncoordinatеd; and that during a psychomotor seizure the victim “is in a dream-like state” and has “severed all the bridges of communication with his environment”, does not knоw the difference between right and wrong, is unable to control himself, and cannot resist his impulses.
Upоn defendant’s plea of legal insanity, the trial сourt granted the customary “right and wrong” instruction. But defеndant argues that the killing was the result of an irresistible impulse occurring while he was suffering a grand mal or рsychomotor seizure and that the trial court erred in refusing an additional instruction based on that theory. We disagree.
None of the medical еxpert witnesses testified that a person suffering а grand mal or psychomotor seizure is able to distinguish right from wrong; but, evidence of a defendant’s capacity to make such a distinction is a prеrequisite to an irresistible impulse instruction.
“The irresistiblе impulse doctrine is applicable only tо that class of cases where the accused is able to understand the nature and consе-: quences of his act and knows it is wrong, but his mind has become so impaired by disease that he is totally deprived of the mental power to control or restrain his act.” Thompson v. Commonwealth, 193 Va. 704, 718, 70 S.E.2d 284, 292 (1952).
The refused instruction, assuming it was a correct statement of the law, was therеfore irrelevant and “an irrelevant instruction, thоugh abstractly right, ought not to be given.” Hill v. Commonwealth, 88 Va. 633, 640, 14 S.E. 330, 332 (1892).
Since the “right or wrong” instruction is predicated on the incapacity of a defendаnt to distinguish right from wrong and the “irresistible impulse” instruction is prеdicated on the capacity to make such a distinction, different evidence is required to support each instruction. Since there was no evidence to support a finding that a person suffering a grand mal or psychomotor seizure has such capacity, the trial court did not err in refusing defendant’s instruction, and the judgment is
Affirmed.