Thomas L. Sanderlin v. United StatesThomas L. Sanderlin v. United States
Lead Opinion
Involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital is one of the most serious restrictions a state may impose on a person’s liberty. This case involves the procedural steps that the government must follow before depriving a recently acquitted criminal defendant of his freedom. Appellant Thomas Sanderlin was tried for committing a crime, but a magistrate found him Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (“NGI”). He was committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he has been confined since June 1983. Sanderlin claims that his continued detention is illegal because he has been denied statutory rights that are available to certain defendants who are adjudged NGI. The validity of this claim rests on appellant’s contention that the insanity defense was imposed on him by the trial court.
Although the question is close, we agree that Sanderlin never raised the insanity defense, and that consequently he is entitled to the full procedural protections that attach to civil commitment proceedings. We therefore reverse the magistrate’s decision and remand for further consideration.
I.
A. Background
On December 30,1982, Thomas Sanderlin was arrested and charged with making threatening phone calls to a bank in an attempt to extort money. The evidence against Sanderlin was overwhelming: he had identified himself on the phone as the caller, and one of the bank employees who had received the threats recognized the voice.
On May 3, 1983, St. Elizabeths again wrote to the court, saying that Sanderlin was now “marginally” competent to be tried, but repeating its earlier assessment that defendant was legally insane. The magistrate promptly scheduled a competency hearing for May 18; she did not make a competency finding on that day, however, because of a misunderstanding between the parties about the purpose of the hearing. The court and parties agreed to continue the case until June 1, 1983, at which time there would be a competency determination, to be followed, if feasible, by a trial. Sanderlin was present at the May 18 hearing.
At the time of his arrest, Sanderlin was charged with making extortious threats, a felony under
The government called only two witnesses: an FBI agent who recounted the facts, and Dr. Thomas Polley, a St. Elizabeths psychologist. Dr. Polley testified that it was the unanimous opinion of the hospital staff that Sanderlin suffered from a mental disease that prevented him from obeying the law. Christensen did not challenge this assessment during cross-examination. The defense also did not put on any evidence of its own, and did not make an opening or closing statement.
The magistrate found Sanderlin not guilty by reason of insanity. United States v. Sanderlin, No. 82-0595, Trans, at 25 (D.D.C. June 1, 1983). The court ordered that defendant be immediately committed to St. Elizabeths, with the requirement that he be given a hearing within 50 days to determine if he posed a danger to himself or others. See
On June 7, 1984, one year after his commitment began, Sanderlin filed a motion for unconditional release in federal district court. See
The magistrate held a hearing on the motion on June 20, 1984. The government introduced three witnesses. The first was the prosecutor from Sanderlin’s trial, John Finnegan. He said that after defendant was found competent to stand trial, he spoke to Christensen about the best way to proceed with the case. Finnegan said that the two lawyers struck a deal (“the agree
The second witness was Christensen, Sanderlin’s trial counsel (a different lawyer represented Sanderlin at the
The final witness was Dr. Polley. He said that until a month before trial, Sander-lin had indicated that he did not want to rely on the NGI defense. A few weeks before trial, however, Polley said that Sanderlin mentioned that he was “considering” going along with the agreement. Pol-ley also testified that four days after trial, Sanderlin said that he had agreed to a stipulated NGI, hoping that the charge reduction would lead to a shorter period of hospitalization.
On March 25, 1985, the magistrate denied the
counsel advised the Court, in the presence of the defendant that after negotiations between counsel, an agreement had been reached, whereby the government would reduce the felony to a misdemean- or so that a prompt trial could be conducted looking toward an uncontested NGI verdict.
United States v. Sanderlin, No. 82-0595, slip op. at 2 (D.D.C. Mar. 25, 1985) (“301(k) Decision”). The magistrate was also persuaded by two post-trial events: first, Sanderlin’s statement to Doctor Polley that he had agreed to the stipulated NGI; second, defendant’s waiver of his right to a hearing soon after commitment to establish his dangerousness.
Sanderlin filed a petition for rehearing, claiming that the record did not support the magistrate’s findings, particularly with respect to the May 18 hearing. The petition is still pending before the magistrate.
B. The Statutory Context
It is important to articulate what is at stake in this appeal. Sanderlin is not challenging the determination that he was legally insane when he committed the crime. The only question is whether Sanderlin was entitled to full civil commitment proceedings, or whether he was properly subject to the more summary process available to the court in certain NGI cases.
The normal route by which a person is sent to St. Elizabeths is defined in
There is an alternative way that a person may be committed.
If any person tried upon an indictment or information for an offense raises the defense of insanity and is acquitted solely on the ground that he was insane at the time of its commission, he shall be committed to a hospital for the mentally ill until such time as he is eligible for release pursuant to [this statute],
(emphasis added). The summary commitment called for by this subsection is only temporary; a person so confined is entitled to a “Bolton hearing” within 50 days of commitment for a determination of dangerousness to see whether further hospitalization is warranted.
The procedure available to those who raise the insanity defense thus differs from the civil process in two important respects. First, the person placed in the hospital after an NGI acquittal does not have the right to have a jury determine his dangerousness; only a judge is available at a Bolton hearing. Second, instead of the burden being on the government, the person who raised the NGI defense starts with a presumption that he should be confined. The patient has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that he should be released.
A person who is civilly committed is thus afforded greater protections against unwarranted confinement than someone who relies on the NGI defense. There are sound reasons for these distinctions: when a criminal defendant affirmatively raises the insanity defense and is then found NGI, courts need not be as concerned that the commitment procedure was instituted in haste, or for illegitimate reasons. The defendant has placed his mental status in issue, and thus, for example, there is no unfairness in placing the burden on him to rebut the inference that psychiatric treatment is required. See Jones v. United States,
But by the same token, when a criminal defendant does not put his sanity in issue the summary procedures of
Whether a particular defendant “raised” the NGI defense is invariably a fact-specific determination. Accordingly, we turn to the merits of Sanderlin’s appeal.
II.
There is no dispute that Sanderlin did not “raise” the insanity defense on his own, at least in the classic sense of the word. He did not notify the prosecutor or the court that he intended to plead NGI, as required by statute.
As the government concedes, the defense was raised, if at all, by virtue of the alleged agreement between the prosecution and Sanderlin’s lawyer. The government maintains that Sanderlin agreed before trial not to challenge the evidence of insanity in return for a reduced charge, and that this acquiescence was tantamount to “raising” the defense. The government finds it particularly significant that Sanderlin did not attempt to rebut the trial testimony that showed he was mentally ill. Defendant’s silence also figured prominently in the magistrate’s decision: she found that Sand-erlin was made aware of the agreement at the May 18 hearing, implying that he should have objected if he disagreed with the course his case was taking.
At the
This requirement — that evidence of the agreement be placed in the record — is not novel. Both the criminal and the civil law have long recognized the evidence that is not introduced on the record is incompetent, even if extra-record proof would have supported the disputed claim. It is firmly established, for example, that the prosecution as well as the defense has an obligation to disclose and elaborate the terms of a plea bargain in court and on the record. United States v. Roberts, 570 F.2d 999, 1007 & n. 25 (D.C.Cir.1977); 1 C. Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure § 175.1 (2d ed. 1982); See
The reason for this requirement is obvious. A criminal defendant is not considered guilty at the time he strikes a deal with the prosecutor — it is only after he declares his position to the court that he may be sentenced and imprisoned. If for some reason the court failed to ask a defendant whether he had entered into a plea agreement, the plea could be challenged, and the existence of off-the-record evidence of an agreement would not preserve the deal. See United States v. Gray, 584 F.2d 96 (5th Cir.1978); cf. Roberts,
We find the analogy to plea bargains particularly relevant to this case. Sander-
There are analogous requirements in civil proceedings. Many of the federal rules governing stipulations, for example, require that agreements be memorialized either in a writing or by an in-court declaration. See, e.g.,
We find these principles applicable to the case at bar. The “record” before the magistrate at the
I’ve spoken to Mr. Sanderlin about this and what we’d like to do is to have the [competency] hearing and then if everything works out in the hearing I immediately proceed with the same personnel— cast of characters — to the final hearing.
Transcript of May 18, 1983 Hearing, United States v. Sanderlin, No. 82-0595, at 2. It is possible to infer that the defense saw no need for further trial preparation once competency was established, because it was understood that the trial would be uncontested. This is a far cry, however, from the magistrate’s recollection (she did not have the transcript before her at the
The magistrate’s erroneous recollection was not harmless, because there was also no discussion of the agreement at trial. The government argues, though, that while Sanderlin did not introduce evidence of his own insanity, he also did not contest its introduction. This failure to defend, urges the government, is consistent with the agreement. But it also could be consistent with Sanderlin’s theory that the defense was imposed on him — he certainly could not have objected to the agreement if it was never squarely presented to him while he was in court. This heavy reliance on defendant’s silence to prove the essential ingredients of a statutory procedure is aberrant in a criminal proceeding; fundamental constitutional doctrine precludes the use of a criminal defendant’s silence as proof that he conceded the truth of the
This is not to say, of course, that defendant’s silence will always, or even usually, bar a finding that he raised the defense within the meaning of
We do not, of course, dispute that a defendant’s silence might suggest conscious acquiescence when the insanity defense is properly and explicitly pleaded, written notice given, evidence introduced, and the issue otherwise clearly joined.
The government does not seriously dispute that the evidence it relied on was never introduced. It argues instead that there was sufficient evidence developed at the
The dissent apparently believes that we are both ignoring the magistrate’s findings and overruling our decision in Henry. In fact, we do neither. The basis of our decision is that the magistrate was clearly erroneous in concluding that there was record evidence of an agreement to raise the insanity defense. There is thus nothing novel about either the scope or the standards of our review. Nor is our decision inconsistent with the lessons of Henry; nothing in that opinion suggests that extra-record evidence should be considered in making a
Our decision does not create any sweeping new rights for those confined to psychiatric hospitals. As the government readily admits, there is a simple way to keep the problem presented in this case from reoccurring. If the parties have agreed to a stipulated NGI procedure, it is a simple matter for the trial judge or magistrate to ask the defendant on the record whether he understands and agrees to the arrangement. This procedure is now required before a judge may accept a guilty plea,
Although Sanderlin’s
For all the progress made by psychiatry, we still know very little about the workings of the mind or the causes of mental illness. Psychiatric institutions, more humane and better appointed than in the past, remain depressing and constrain
We therefore reverse the magistrate’s decision, and remand with instructions that if the government does not begin civil commitment proceedings within 30 days, Mr. Sanderlin must be released. See Henry,
It is so ordered.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting:
The issue before us — at least as I understand it — is whether the magistrate’s finding at the
In Henry we held that a defendant committed under
Here, there is ample evidence, as the majority recognizes, that defendant’s competent and experienced counsel agreed with the prosecutor to a stipulated NGI verdict in return for a reduced charge (misdemean- or rather than felony) because at the time there was good reason to believe that the defendant would be better off if charged with a misdemeanor. That having been established, there remains only the question as to whether Sanderlin was “aware” that the insanity defense was raised. Sanderlin’s attorney, Mr. Christensen, testified that he had, indeed, explained the defense and its implications to Sanderlin before trial, which caused Sanderlin to “consider” authorizing the agreement in the weeks before trial, according to Dr. Polley. Christensen also testified that he would not have permitted an NGI acquittal against his client's wishes, and that Sanderlin, who, of course, was present during the proceedings, did not indicate any discomfort with the defense. In light of all this, it seems to me impossible to conclude that Sanderlin was not aware that the defense was in fact raised in his behalf.
In this case, however, the Government went further and proved that Sanderlin actually agreed to the interposition of the defense, even though the magistrate erroneously (though inconsequentially, as it turned out) prevented Christensen from testifying on this point when Sanderlin raised his attorney-client privilege. See Tasby v. United States,
Under Henry the whole point of a
In truth, the majority opinion has little to do with what we are charged to do — determining whether the trial judge’s finding is clearly erroneous. Instead, the court adopts a new rule, de facto overruling Henry in the bargain, by refusing to recognize relevant evidence of Sanderlin’s agreement. The majority’s new rule may or may not be based on sound policy but it is certainly not predicated on either statutory or constitutional law.
Notes
. The majority refers to evidence presented on the record in a