No. 85-5348
Argued: January 12, 1987Decided: June 24, 1987
Held:
-
- 1. Petitioner was not deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury, representative of a fair cross section of the community, because the prosecution was permitted to “death-qualify” the jury. Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. 162 , which authorizes “death qualification” prior to the guilt phase of a bifurcated capital trial, controls this case involving a joint trial in which the death penalty was sought only against petitioner’s codefendant. The Commonwealth had legitimate interests in holding a joint trial where the defendants’ conduct arose
- from the same events, and in having a jury that could properly find the facts and apply the law at both phases of the trial as to both defendants, and assess the appropriateness of the death penalty for the codefendant. Pp. 415-421.
- 2. The prosecution’s use of Dr. Lange’s report solely to rebut petitioner’s psychological evidence did not violate petitioner’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights under Smith. Where, as here, a defendant requests a psychological evaluation or presents psychiatric evidence, the prosecution may rebut this presentation with the report of the requested examination without implicating the defendant’s privilege against self-incrimination. Because petitioner did not testify and his entire strategy was to establish his “mental status” defense through the social worker’s readings of earlier evaluations, the prosecution could not respond to petitioner’s case unless it presented other psychological evidence. Moreover, the use of Dr. Lange’s report did not deny petitioner his right to the effective assistance of counsel. Unlike the situation in Smith, petitioner’s counsel himself requested Dr. Lange’s evaluation and presumably discussed it with his client. Petitioner’s argument that neither he nor his counsel could anticipate the report’s use to rebut his “mental status” defense is unavailing. Smith put counsel on notice that, if he intended to present such a defense, he could anticipate the use of psychological evidence in rebuttal. Pp. 421-425.
691 S. W. 2d 210, affirmed.
BLACKMUN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C. J., and WHITE, POWELL, O’CONNOR, and SCALIA, JJ., joined. MARSHALL, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BRENNAN, J., joined, and in Part I of which STEVENS, J., joined, post, p. 426.
Kevin M. McNally, by appointment of the Court, 479 U.S. 1015 , argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were C. Thomas Hectus and M. Gail Robinson.
David A. Smith, Assistant Attorney General of Kentucky, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the briefs were David L. Armstrong, Attorney General, C. Lloyd Vest II, Assistant Attorney General, and Ernest A. Jasmin, Special Assistant Attorney General. *
[ Footnote * ] A brief of amici curiae urging affirmance was filed for the State of Arkansas et al. by Michael C. Turpen, Attorney General of Oklahoma, David W. Lee and Susan Stewart Dickerson, Assistant Attorneys General, John Steven Clark, Attorney General of Arkansas, John J. Kelly, Chief [483 U.S. 402, 404] State’s Attorney of Connecticut, Charles M. Oberly III, Attorney General of Delaware, Jim C. Smith, Attorney General of Florida, Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General of Georgia, C. William Ullrich, Acting Attorney General of Guam, Corinne K. A. Watanabe, Attorney General of Hawaii, Neil F. Hartigan, Attorney General of Illinois, Linley E. Pearson, Attorney General of Indiana, Robert T. Stephan, Attorney General of Kansas, William J. Guste, Jr., Attorney General of Louisiana, Edward Lloyd Pittman, Attorney General of Mississippi, William L. Webster, Attorney General of Missouri, Robert M. Spire, Attorney General of Nebraska, Lacy H. Thornburg, Attorney General of North Carolina, Dave Frohnmayer, Attorney General of Oregon, LeRoy S. Zimmerman, Attorney General of Pennsylvania, T. Travis Medlock, Attorney General of South Carolina, W. J. Michael Cody, Attorney General of Tennessee, Mary Sue Terry, Attorney General of Virginia, and Kenneth O. Eikenberry, Attorney General of Washington. [483 U.S. 402, 404]
JUSTICE BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents two narrow issues arising out of petitioner Buchanan’s trial for murder. First, it poses the question whether petitioner was deprived of his right to an impartial jury, representative of a fair cross section of the community, because the Commonwealth of Kentucky was permitted to “death-qualify” the jury in his joint trial where the death penalty was sought against his codefendant. Second, the case raises the question whether the admission of findings from a psychiatric examination of petitioner proffered solely to rebut other psychological evidence presented by petitioner violated his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights where his counsel had requested the examination and where petitioner attempted to establish at trial a mental-status defense. 1 [483 U.S. 402, 405]
I
Shortly after midnight on January 7, 1981, police in Louisville, Ky., discovered the partially clad body of 20-year-old Barbel C. Poore in the backseat of her automobile. The young woman had been sexually assaulted and shot twice in the head. The discovery was occasioned by a report to the police from Poore’s mother, who had driven by the gas station where her daughter worked, after Poore failed to return home at the expected time, and who found the station unattended and unlocked. Tr. 399 (Aug. 2-13, 1982). The ensuing police investigation led to the arrest of Kevin Stanford, Troy Johnson, and petitioner, David Buchanan, a juvenile.
From the confessions of these participants, including that of petitioner, the events surrounding the murder were reconstructed: Petitioner first approached Johnson with a plan to rob the gas station, and obtained from him a gun and bullets owned by Johnson’s brother. Id., at 1031. Petitioner then telephoned Stanford, who lived in an apartment complex next to the station, and proposed the plan to him. Id., at 1032. Johnson and petitioner proceeded to the parking lot of the apartment complex where they met Stanford. Petitioner told Johnson to wait in the car while he and Stanford approached the station. Id., at 484, 1033. Petitioner and Stanford entered the station office, with Stanford carrying the gun. While petitioner attempted to locate and then to open the safe, Stanford took Poore into the interior restroom and raped her. Id., at 484-485. After petitioner failed to open the safe, he joined Stanford and the two took turns raping and sodomizing Poore despite her plea to petitioner that the assault cease. Id., at 485, 1044.
Approximately a half hour after leaving Johnson, petitioner returned to the car carrying a can of gasoline which he placed in its backseat. After telling Johnson to continue to wait, id., at 1034, petitioner left for the station. He came back to the car once again, entered it, and ordered [483 U.S. 402, 406] Johnson to drive to a location, a short distance from the station, where Stanford had driven Poore in Poore’s car in order, as petitioner put it, “[t]o have some more sex with her.” Id., at 1037. Petitioner got out of Johnson’s car and approached Stanford, who was standing beside the driver’s side of Poore’s vehicle. Ibid. As petitioner watched, Stanford shot Poore in the face and then, as petitioner started to return to Johnson’s car, in the back of the head. Id., at 486, 1037-1038.
While Johnson was held over in juvenile court, 2 petitioner and Stanford were transferred to the Circuit Court of Jefferson County and were indicted for capital murder and other charges arising out of events surrounding the murder. 3 The Commonwealth proceeded to try petitioner and Stanford [483 U.S. 402, 407] jointly. 4 Petitioner did not request that his trial be severed from Stanford’s. 5 In two pretrial motions, he did request that the jury not be “death qualified,” 6 and that there be [483 U.S. 402, 408] two juries, one for guilt and the other for sentencing, with the first not being “death qualified.” App. 5, 8. In essence, he argued that the “death qualification” of the jury prior to the guilt phase violated his right to an impartial jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community in violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Id., at 6, 9. The court denied both motions. Petitioner filed another pretrial motion seeking dismissal of the capital portion of the indictment against him on the basis that Stanford had been the triggerman, that petitioner had no intent to kill Poore, and that therefore, under Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 (1982), 7 petitioner could not be sentenced to death. App. 19, 22. Without opinion and with no objection from the prosecution, the court granted this motion. Id., at 24. At voir dire, petitioner renewed his earlier motions as to “death qualification,” emphasizing that he was no longer subject to the death penalty. Id., at 26-27. The court again denied these motions.
At trial, petitioner attempted to establish the affirmative defense of “extreme emotional disturbance.” 8 He called as [483 U.S. 402, 409] his sole witness a social worker, Martha Elam, who formerly had been assigned to his case. At the request of petitioner’s counsel, she read to the jury from several reports and letters dealing with evaluations of petitioner’s mental condition. 9 [483 U.S. 402, 410] On cross-examination, the prosecutor had Elam read another progress report made while petitioner was institutionalized. 10 The prosecutor then sought to have Elam read from a report of a psychological evaluation made by Doctor Robert J. G. Lange while petitioner was within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court after his arrest for Poore’s murder. Counsel for petitioner and the prosecutor jointly had moved the juvenile court to order this evaluation under Ky. Rev. Stat. [483 U.S. 402, 411] 202A.010-202A.990 (1977), which, at the time, governed involuntary hospitalization for psychiatric treatment. 11
When petitioner objected on the basis that Doctor Lange’s evaluation had nothing to do with petitioner’s emotional disturbance but only with his competency to stand trial, App. 55, the prosecutor responded that this report dealt with the same matters petitioner already had explored by having Elam read the earlier reports. Petitioner also contended that such an introduction would violate his Fifth and Sixth Amendments rights because his counsel had not been present during [483 U.S. 402, 412] the evaluation and petitioner had not been informed that the results could be used against him at trial. Id., at 57-58. Not persuaded by petitioner’s arguments, the court permitted Elam to read an edited version of the report, 12 with the observation that “you can’t argue about his mental status at the time of the commitment of this offense and exclude evidence when he was evaluated with reference to that mental status.” Id., at 56.
Petitioner was found guilty on all charges and, pursuant to Kentucky procedure, the jury determined the sentence. 13 [483 U.S. 402, 413] The jury imposed the maximum sentence on each charge, with the sentences to be served consecutively. Id., at 76-77. The court accepted the sentences but made them run concurrently with the length of the longest term, a life sentence, authorized on the murder charge. See Tr. of Hearing 4-5 (Sept. 14, 1982); Ky. Rev. Stat. 532.110 (Supp. 1986). 14 Stanford was sentenced to death on the murder charge by the same jury. 15
The Supreme Court of Kentucky affirmed petitioner’s conviction and sentences. 691 S. W. 2d 210 (1985). Among other things, the court rejected petitioner’s contention that the “death qualification” of the jury deprived him of his right to an impartial jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community. In its view, a “death-qualified” jury was not “extra-ordinarily conviction-prone,” id., at 211; rather, “[a] death-qualified panel tends to ensure those who serve on the jury [will] be willing and able to follow the evidence and law rather than their own preconceived attitudes.” Id., at 212. It also stated that persons who are excluded from a jury panel because of their opposition to the death penalty do not constitute a “cognizable group” for the purposes of a fair cross section analysis. Ibid.
The court, moreover, rejected petitioner’s contention that the trial judge erred in allowing the prosecutor to introduce [483 U.S. 402, 414] Doctor Lange’s report through cross-examination of Elam. It observed that petitioner had “opened the door for the introduction of the competency report by introducing only those DHR reports which were beneficial to him.” Id., at 213. It found irrelevant the fact that Doctor Lange had prepared his report in connection with the inquiry into petitioner’s competency to stand trial (as we have observed, see n. 11, supra, the court misunderstood the purpose of Doctor Lange’s examination). In addition, the court concluded that the introduction of the report did not violate petitioner’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination under Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454 (1981). The court reasoned that in Smith the defendant’s remarks to the examiner were incriminatory, whereas “[i]n this case, the report contained no inculpatory statements by [petitioner] or any accusatory observation by the examiner who merely recited his observations of [petitioner’s] outward appearance.” 691 S. W. 2d, at 213. Alternatively, the court observed that, if the admission of the competency report had been an error, it was harmless, given petitioner’s confession and the overwhelming evidence of his guilt. Ibid.
Because of the nature of the issues involved, we granted certiorari, 476 U.S. 1140 (1986).
II
Last Term, in Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. 162 (1986), this Court held that the Constitution does not “prohibit the removal for cause, prior to the guilt phase of a bifurcated capital trial, of prospective jurors whose opposition to the death penalty is so strong that it would prevent or substantially impair the performance of their duties as jurors at the sentencing phase of the trial.” Id., at 165. In particular, the Court rejected McCree’s contention that “death qualification” prior to the guilt phase of the trial violated his right under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to an impartial jury selected from a representative cross section of the community. Id., at 178, 184. The decision in McCree controls the [483 U.S. 402, 415] instant case. In fact, petitioner advances here many arguments identical to those expressly rejected in McCree. 16
A
The Court’s reasoning in McCree requires rejection of petitioner’s claim that “death qualification” violated his right to a jury selected from a representative cross section of the community. It was explained in McCree that the fair cross section requirement applies only to venires, not to petit juries. Id., at 173. Accordingly, petit juries do not have to “reflect the composition of the community at large.” Ibid. More importantly, it was pointed out that, even if this requirement were applied to petit juries, no fair cross section violation would be established when “Witherspoon-excludables” were dismissed from a petit jury, because they do not constitute a distinctive group for fair cross section purposes. Id., at 174.
The reasons given in McCree for the conclusion that “Witherspoon-excludables” are not such a group are equally pertinent here. In “death qualifying” the jury at petitioner’s joint trial, the Commonwealth did not arbitrarily single out the “Witherspoon-excludables” for a reason unrelated to their ability to serve as jurors at the trial, as, for example, on the basis of race or gender. See id., at 174-175. Rather, the Commonwealth excluded them in order to promote its interest in having a jury that could properly find the facts and apply the law at both the guilt and sentencing phases of the joint trial. Moreover, as was observed in McCree, the identification [483 U.S. 402, 416] of a group such as the “Witherspoon-excludables” does not “create an `appearance of unfairness,'” id., at 176, because it is related to the Commonwealth’s legitimate interest in obtaining a jury that does not contain members who are unable to follow the law with respect to a particular issue in a capital case. Similar reasoning applies in the context of petitioner’s joint trial, for the “Witherspoon-excludables” would not have been able to assess properly the appropriateness of imposing the death penalty on codefendant Stanford.
Finally, in McCree it was emphasized that not all who oppose the death penalty are excludable for cause. Those who indicate that they can set aside temporarily their personal beliefs in deference to the rule of law may serve as jurors. Even those who are “Witherspoon-excludables” are not substantially deprived of “their basic rights of citizenship,” because they are not prevented from serving as jurors in other criminal cases. Ibid. Although, as here, “Witherspoon-excludables” will be barred from participating in joint trials where the jury will be required to assess the appropriateness of the death penalty for one of the defendants, this incremental restriction on the ability of those individuals to serve on juries is not constitutionally impermissible.
The facts of the case at bar do not alter the conclusion that “Witherspoon-excludables” are not a distinctive group for fair cross section purposes. Thus, there is no violation of the Sixth Amendment’s fair cross section requirement here. 17
B
The analysis in McCree also forecloses petitioner’s claim that he was denied his right to an impartial jury because of the removal of “Witherspoon-excludables” from the jury at his joint trial. The Court considered a similar claim in McCree that was directed at the exclusion of such jurors [483 U.S. 402, 417] prior to the guilt phase of a capital defendant’s trial. Id., at 179. It rejected McCree’s claim that the impartial-jury requirement demanded a balancing of jurors with different predilections because that view was inconsistent with the Court’s understanding that jury impartiality requires only “`jurors who will conscientiously apply the law and find the facts.'” Id., at 178, quoting Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 423 (1985). It reasoned that this balancing of juror viewpoints sought by McCree was impractical because it would require a trial judge to ensure “that each [jury] contains the proper number of Democrats and Republicans, young persons and old persons, white-collar executives and blue-collar laborers, and so on.” 476 U.S., at 178 .
The Court further explained in McCree that the State’s interest in having a single jury decide all the issues in a capital trial was proper, and it distinguished that case from the situations in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510 (1968), and Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38 (1980), where Illinois and Texas “crossed the line of neutrality” in striking a venire member who expressed any scruple about the death penalty. 476 U.S., at 179 -180, quoting Witherspoon, 391 U.S., at 520 . It also acknowledged the State’s interest in the possibility that a defendant might benefit at the sentencing phase from any “`residual doubts'” about the evidence at the guilt phase that the jury might have had. 476 U.S., at 181 . In addition, given that much of the same evidence would be presented at both phases of the capital trial, the Court thought appropriate the interest in not putting either the prosecution or the defense to the burden of having to present the evidence and testimony twice. Ibid. Finally, it distinguished McCree’s claim from the situations presented in Witherspoon and Adams because it did not deal with “the special context of capital sentencing, where the range of jury discretion necessarily gave rise to far greater concern over the possible effects of an `imbalanced jury.'” 476 U.S., at 182 -183. In the guilt phase of McCree’s trial, the jury’s discretion was traditionally circumscribed. Id., at 184. [483 U.S. 402, 418]
Although petitioner contends that the Commonwealth’s interests in having “Witherspoon-excludables” removed from his jury were minimal in comparison to the prejudice he suffered by being convicted and sentenced by this jury, Brief for Petitioner 26, and n. 42, these interests are similar to those identified in McCree and equally as compelling. Petitioner’s primary error is his characterization of the issue presented here as affecting his trial, as opposed to the actual trial in this case – the joint trial of petitioner and Stanford. As demonstrated by the statutory provisions providing for joinder of offenses and defendants, see n. 4, supra, the Commonwealth has determined that it has an interest in providing prosecutors with the authority to proceed in a joint trial when the conduct of more than one criminal defendant arises out of the same events.
Underlying the Commonwealth’s interest in a joint trial is a related interest in promoting the reliability and consistency of its judicial process, an interest that may benefit the noncapital defendant as well. In joint trials, the jury obtains a more complete view of all the acts underlying the charges than would be possible in separate trials. From such a perspective, it may be able to arrive more reliably at its conclusions regarding the guilt or innocence of a particular defendant and to assign fairly the respective responsibilities of each defendant in the sentencing. See ABA Standards for Criminal Justice Standard 13-2.2 (2d ed. 1980). This jury perspective is particularly significant where, as here, all the crimes charged against the joined defendants arise out of one chain of events, where there is a single victim, and where, in fact, the defendants are indicted on several of the same counts. Indeed, it appears that, by not moving to sever his case from that of Stanford, petitioner made the tactical decision that he would fare better if he were tried by the same jury that tried Stanford, the “triggerman” in Poore’s murder.
The Commonwealth’s interest in a joint trial also is bound up with a concern that it not be required to undergo the burden of presenting the same evidence to different juries [483 U.S. 402, 419] where, as here, two defendants, only one of whom is eligible for a death sentence, are charged with crimes arising out of the same events. Indeed, if petitioner’s position – that, because a “death-qualified” jury is conviction prone and likely to mete out harsher sentences, it should be used only in the capital case – were accepted, its logic would lead to an anomalous result: if, as in Stanford’s case, a capital defendant also is charged with noncapital offenses, according to petitioner there would have to be one trial for those offenses and another for the capital offense. Such a result would place an intolerable administrative burden upon the Commonwealth. 18
Where, as here, one of the joined defendants is a capital defendant and the capital-sentencing scheme requires the use of the same jury for the guilt and penalty phases of the capital defendant’s trial, the interest in this scheme, which the Court recognized as significant in McCree, 476 U.S., at 182 , coupled with the Commonwealth’s interest in a joint trial, argues [483 U.S. 402, 420] strongly in favor of permitting “death qualification” of the jury.
Again, as in McCree, the particular concern about the possible effect of an “`imbalanced’ jury” in the “special context of capital sentencing,” id., at 182, is not present with respect to the guilt and sentencing phases of a noncapital defendant in this case. For, at the guilt phase, the jury’s discretion traditionally is more channeled than at a capital-sentencing proceeding, and, at the penalty phase, the jury’s sentence is limited to specific statutory sentences and is subject to review by the judge. See nn. 13 and 14, supra. In fact, the control of the judge over jury discretion in the noncapital-sentencing decision worked well in petitioner’s case when the court ordered that his multiple sentences be served concurrently with the life sentence on the murder charge. 19
Accordingly, petitioner’s claim that a “death-qualified” jury lacks impartiality is no more persuasive than McCree’s. As was stated in McCree, “the Constitution presupposes that a jury selected from a fair cross section of the community is impartial, regardless of the mix of individual viewpoints actually represented on the jury, so long as the jurors can conscientiously and properly carry out their sworn duty to apply the law to the facts of the particular case.” 476 U.S., at 184 . Given this presupposition and the significant interests in having a joint trial of petitioner and Stanford, there was no violation of petitioner’s Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments right to an impartial jury. [483 U.S. 402, 421]
III
A
This Court’s precedent also controls petitioner’s claim as to the prosecutor’s use of Doctor Lange’s report. In Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454 (1981), we were faced with a situation where a Texas prosecutor had called as his only witness at a capital-sentencing hearing a psychiatrist, who described defendant Smith’s severe sociopathic condition and who expressed his opinion that it could not be remedied by treatment. Id., at 459-460. The psychiatrist was able to give this testimony because he had examined Smith at the request of the trial judge, who had not notified defense counsel about the scope of the examination or, it seemed, even about the existence of the examination. Id., at 470-471, and n. 15. Moreover, Smith’s counsel neither had placed at issue Smith’s competency to stand trial nor had offered an insanity defense. See id., at 457, and n. 1, 458. Under the then-existing Texas capital-sentencing procedure, if the jury answered three questions in the affirmative, the judge was to impose the death sentence. See id., at 457-458. One of these questions concerned the defendant’s future dangerousness, an issue that the psychiatrist in effect addressed.
We concluded that there was a Fifth Amendment violation in the prosecutor’s presentation of such testimony at the sentencing proceeding. After noting that the Fifth Amendment was applicable at a capital-sentencing hearing, we observed that the psychiatrist’s prognosis of Smith’s future dangerousness was not based simply on his observations of the defendant, but on detailed descriptions of Smith’s statements about the underlying crime. Id., at 464, and n. 9. Accordingly, in our view, Smith’s communications to the psychiatrist during the examination had become testimonial in nature. Given the character of the psychiatrist’s testimony, moreover, we were unable to consider his evaluation to be “a routine competency examination restricted to ensuring that respondent understood the charges against him and was capable of assisting [483 U.S. 402, 422] in his defense.” Id., at 465. We concluded: “When [at trial the psychiatrist] went beyond simply reporting to the court on the issue of competence and testified for the prosecution at the penalty phase on the crucial issue of respondent’s future dangerousness, his role changed and became essentially like that of an agent of the State recounting unwarned statements made in a postarrest custodial setting.” Id., at 467. In such a situation, we found a Fifth Amendment violation because of the failure to administer to Smith, before the examination, the warning required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).
We recognized, however, the “distinct circumstances” of that case, 451 U.S., at 466 – the trial judge had ordered, sua sponte, the psychiatric examination and Smith neither had asserted an insanity defense nor had offered psychiatric evidence at trial. We thus acknowledged that, in other situations, the State might have an interest in introducing psychiatric evidence to rebut petitioner’s defense:
- “When a defendant asserts the insanity defense and introduces supporting psychiatric testimony, his silence may deprive the State of the only effective means it has of controverting his proof on an issue that he interjected into the case. Accordingly, several Courts of Appeals have held that, under such circumstances, a defendant can be required to submit to a sanity examination conducted by the prosecution’s psychiatrist.” Id., at 465.
We further noted: “A criminal defendant, who neither initiates a psychiatric evaluation nor attempts to introduce any psychiatric evidence, may not be compelled to respond to a psychiatrist if his statements can be used against him at a capital sentencing proceeding.” Id., at 468. This statement logically leads to another proposition: if a defendant requests such an evaluation or presents psychiatric evidence, then, at the very least, the prosecution may rebut this presentation with evidence from the reports of the examination that the [483 U.S. 402, 423] defendant requested. The defendant would have no Fifth Amendment privilege against the introduction of this psychiatric testimony by the prosecution. See United States v. Byers, 239 U.S. App. D.C. 1, 8-10, 740 F.2d 1104, 1111-1113 (1984) (plurality opinion); Pope v. United States, 372 F.2d 710, 720 (CA8 1967) (en banc), vacated and remanded on other grounds, 392 U.S. 651 (1968).
This case presents one of the situations that we distinguished from the facts in Smith. Here petitioner’s counsel joined in a motion for Doctor Lange’s examination pursuant to the Kentucky procedure for involuntary hospitalization. Moreover, petitioner’s entire defense strategy was to establish the “mental status” defense of extreme emotional disturbance. Indeed, the sole witness for petitioner was Elam, who was asked by defense counsel to do little more than read to the jury the psychological reports and letter in the custody of Kentucky’s Department of Human Services. In such circumstances, with petitioner not taking the stand, the Commonwealth could not respond to this defense unless it presented other psychological evidence. Accordingly, the Commonwealth asked Elam to read excerpts of Doctor Lange’s report, in which the psychiatrist had set forth his general observations about the mental state of petitioner but had not described any statements by petitioner dealing with the crimes for which he was charged. 20 The introduction of such [483 U.S. 402, 424] a report for this limited rebuttal purpose does not constitute a Fifth Amendment violation.
B
In Estelle v. Smith, we also concluded that Smith’s Sixth Amendment right to the assistance of counsel had been violated. 451 U.S., at 469 -471. As we observed, it was unclear whether Smith’s counsel had even been informed about the psychiatric examination. Id., at 471, n. 15. We determined that, in any event, defense counsel was not aware that the examination would include an inquiry into Smith’s future dangerousness. Id., at 471. Thus, in our view, Smith had not received the opportunity to discuss with his counsel the examination or its scope. Ibid. Here, in contrast, petitioner’s counsel himself requested the psychiatric evaluation by Doctor Lange. It can be assumed – and there are no allegations to the contrary – that defense counsel consulted with petitioner about the nature of this examination.
Petitioner attempts to bring his case within the scope of Smith by arguing that, although he agreed to the examination, he had no idea, because counsel could not anticipate, that it might be used to undermine his “mental status” defense. Brief for Petitioner 48-49. Petitioner, however, misconceives the nature of the Sixth Amendment right at issue here by focusing on the use of Doctor Lange’s report rather than on the proper concern of this Amendment, the consultation with counsel, which petitioner undoubtedly had. Such consultation, to be effective, must be based on counsel’s being informed about the scope and nature of the proceeding. There is no question that petitioner’s counsel had this information. To be sure, the effectiveness of the consultation [483 U.S. 402, 425] also would depend on counsel’s awareness of the possible uses to which petitioner’s statements in the proceeding could be put. Given our decision in Smith, however, counsel was certainly on notice that if, as appears to be the case, he intended to put on a “mental status” defense for petitioner, he would have to anticipate the use of psychological evidence by the prosecution in rebuttal. 21 In these circumstances, then, there was no Sixth Amendment violation.
