State v. Applin
State v. Applin
Opinion of the Court
Blaine Applin killed Dan Jess. He asserted an insanity defense, contending he was acting under a delusional belief that he had received a direct command from God. He challenges the jury instructions, contending the court erred in refusing to define right and wrong. No such definition is generally required, however, and the evidence at trial did not call for a special instruction here. Applin’s other claimed errors are either invited or otherwise unreviewable. We therefore affirm.
FACTS
Blaine Applin was a member of the Gatekeepers, a cult led by Christopher Turgeon. Turgeon was a self-proclaimed prophet who claimed to be in direct communication with God. In 1997, Turgeon learned Child Protective Services was seeking to remove children from some members’ homes, so the Gatekeepers moved from Washington to southern California. To finance the move, Turgeon organized various schemes for thefts from local businesses, one of which involved issuing a forged check to Jaime’s Transmission in Snohomish. Efforts by Jaime’s Transmission to obtain payment eventually led the shop to contact Dan Jess.
Jess had recently left the Gatekeepers. He was upset at being implicated in the scam, and had a combative phone conversation with Turgeon, during which he accused Turgeon of being a false prophet. That evening, Turgeon
Believing he was God’s “chosen vessel”
Applin asserted an insanity defense. The jury convicted him of first degree murder.
DISCUSSION
Washington has adopted the M’Naghten test for criminal insanity, which requires that a defendant be unable to tell the difference between right and wrong with reference to the particular act charged.
The general insanity instruction read in part:
For a defendant to be found not guilty by reason of insanity you must find that, as a result of mental disease or defect, the defendant’s mind was affected to such an extent that the defendant was unable to perceive the nature and quality of the acts with which the defendant is charged or was unable to tell*821 right from wrong with reference to the particular acts with which the defendant is charged.[5 ]
The deific decree instruction read:
A defendant is also not guilty by reason of insanity if you find that each of these elements has been proved by a preponderance of the evidence:
1) At the time of the acts charged the defendant had a mental disease or defect; and
2) As a result of that mental disease or defect, the defendant had a delusion that he had received a direct command from God to do the acts; and
3) The defendant did the acts because of that direct command; and
4) The direct command destroyed the defendant’s free will and his ability to distinguish right from wrong.[
In Washington the deific decree defense derives from State v. Crenshaw,
Crenshaw had killed his wife, and asserted an insanity defense. He challenged the M’Naghten instruction given at trial, which stated the insanity test solely in terms of the defendant’s ability to understand legal wrong: “What is
Crenshaw did not claim to have acted under divine command, and the court held he was therefore not entitled to a deific decree defense. In reaching its conclusion, the court discussed the origins and application of the defense, describing it as a “narrow exception to the societal standard of moral wrong.”
In State v. Cameron, 100 Wn.2d 520, 674 P.2d 650 (1983), the defendant claimed he had killed his stepmother under the psychotic delusion that he had been directed by God to kill Satan’s angel. The trial court gave the same instruction given in Crenshaw, including the paragraph explaining wrongfulness solely in legal terms. Cameron contended that the term “right and wrong” should have been left
The Supreme Court considered the deific decree defense on one other occasion, in State v. Rice.
The only other Washington discussion of the instruction came in Division Two’s scholarly opinion in State v. Potter.
The Potter court examined the opinions in Crenshaw and Rice in light of the cognitive nature of the M’Naghten test, concluded that the Supreme Court did not intend to create an exception to the cognitive test for deific command cases, and held that reference to free will was not required.
Applin relies heavily upon the fact that the instruction affirmed in Potter defined wrongfulness solely in moral terms. But because that aspect of the instruction was not an issue, the opinion in Potter contains no discussion of the definition of wrongfulness. Potter is thus of no help to Applin here.
Although Crenshaw suggests that no definition is usually required, the court discussed deific decree defenses as an exception from the norm. This discussion is heavily relied upon by Applin for the proposition that in such cases, a definition should be given. But the Crenshaw court did not discuss deific decree instructions, since it found Crenshaw unqualified for the defense. The Cameron court held that a definition in terms of legal wrong was error in deific decree cases, and agreed with Cameron’s argument that right and wrong should be left undefined. Crenshaw and Cameron together thus establish that no definition should ordinarily be given.
Applin nonetheless argues that an instruction defining wrongfulness as including moral wrong was needed to correct testimony stating the test solely in terms of legal wrong. Our review of the record persuades us otherwise.
Applin first cites the testimony of the State’s psychiatrist, Dr. Hart, contending Hart stated the insanity test solely in terms of legal wrong. But the testimony Applin complains of was elicited by his counsel on cross-examination, and was expressed only as the witness’ understanding of the law, not as a statement of the law.
Applin also cites testimony of other expert witnesses as requiring a corrective instruction. But these witnesses did not make erroneous statements of the test for insanity. State psychiatrist Dr. Leong testified that codefendant Turgeon did not meet the Washington insanity test because Turgeon was “aware of man’s laws or the State of Washington’s laws at [the time of the murder],” as well as “the rules society had and how he had to act.”
This testimony contains no erroneous assertions about the test and nothing to cause confusion for the jury. Nor did it diminish the defendant’s ability to argue that the insanity definition encompassed the inability to distinguish moral, as well as legal, right from wrong. Applin’s counsel stated in closing:
[fit’s important to understand that this is not right and wrong just in the legal sense, as Dr. Hart would have you believe. This is right and wrong in a legal sense as well as a moral sense. It’s either your ability to tell right from wrong legally or your right from wrong morally.[30 ]
Trial testimony was not misleading or confusing and did not require a special instruction.
Finally, Applin raises various additional objections to the deific decree instruction. He contends the instruction improperly raised the threshold of proof for the insanity defense by requiring him to show that the deific command destroyed not only his ability to tell right from wrong but his free will, and that the “direct command from God” language prevented the jury from considering his subjective, delusional “feeling” that he was God’s “chosen vessel” to carry out Jess’s murder.
We decline to address these arguments, because Applin failed to raise them below.
We reject Applin’s challenge to the court’s jury instructions, and affirm.
Kennedy and Appelwick, JJ., concur.
Review denied at 150 Wn.2d 1026 (2004).
Report of Proceedings (RP) (Sept. 24, 2001) at 1414.
RP (Sept. 19, 2001) at 791.
M’Naghten’s Case, 10 Clark & Fin. 200, 8 Eng. Rep. 718 (H.L. 1843), codified at RCW 9A.12.010; see also State v. Crenshaw, 98 Wn.2d 789, 793, 659 P.2d 488 (1983).
See 11 Washington Pattern Jury Instructions: Criminal 20.01 (2d ed. 1994).
Clerk’s Papers at 40 (emphasis added).
Clerk’s Papers at 41 (emphasis added).
98 Wn.2d 789, 659 P.2d 488 (1983).
Crenshaw, 98 Wn.2d at 798. The deific decree insanity defense is traceable to Justice Cardozo’s hypothetical in People v. Schmidt, 216 N.Y. 324, 339, 110 N.E. 945 (1915): “A mother kills her infant child to whom she has been devotedly attached. She knows the nature and quality of the act; she knows that the law condemns it; but she is inspired by an insane delusion that God has appeared to her and ordained the sacrifice. It seems a mockery to say that, within the meaning of the statute, she knows that the act is wrong.”
Crenshaw, 98 Wn.2d at 793.
Crenshaw, 98 Wn.2d at 797.
Crenshaw, 98 Wn.2d at 799.
Crenshaw, 98 Wn.2d at 799.
Crenshaw, 98 Wn.2d at 798.
Cameron, 100 Wn.2d at 526.
Cameron, 100 Wn.2d at 526 (emphasis added).
Cameron, 100 Wn.2d at 526-27 (citing Schmidt, 216 N.Y. 324).
Cameron, 100 Wn.2d at 527.
110 Wn.2d 577, 757 P.2d 889 (1988).
Rice, 110 Wn.2d at 595.
Rice, 110 Wn.2d at 604-05.
68 Wn. App. 134, 842 P.2d 481 (1992).
Potter, 68 Wn. App. at 144.
The role of free will in deific decree cases has been a source of confusion and debate. See Potter, 68 Wn. App. at 144-49 (discussing cases); see also People v. Serravo, 823 P.2d 128, 139 (Colo. 1992) (discussing Crenshaw at length).
Applin relies on several out-of-state cases in support of his contention that an instruction defining wrongfulness in moral terms is necessary. See, e.g., Serravo, 823 P.2d at 139; State v. Wilson, 242 Conn. 605, 700 A.2d 633 (1997). Because the Washington Supreme Court has directly addressed this issue, these cases do not guide us here.
State v. Walden, 131 Wn.2d 469, 473, 932 P.2d 1237 (1997).
Hart’s only testimony relevant to this issue was in response to a question from Applin’s counsel:
Q: [I]s it your understanding that the law regarding the insanity defense is that the person’s belief prevented that person from comprehending that the act with which they are charged was morally wrong? Is that your understanding of the law? Yes or no?
A: No.
RP (Sept. 26, 2001) at 1767. Applin was apparently attempting to clarify Hart’s testimony on direct that the second prong of the insanity defense was “ [a] s a result of the mental disease or defect, the individual’s incapable or unable to know right from wrong, or know that their act is against the law.” RP (Sept. 26,2001) at 1651.
RP (Sept. 26, 2001) at 1777.
RP (Sept. 26, 2001) at 1782.
RP (Sept. 24, 2001) at 1340.
RP (Sept. 27, 2001) at 1933-34.
See RAP 2.5.
State v. Neher, 112 Wn.2d 347, 352-53, 771 P.2d 330 (1989).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The State of Washington v. Blaine Alan Applin
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