U.S. Sup. Ct.
12-609
Shortly after respondent Cheever was charged with capital murder, the Kansas Supreme Court found the State’s death penalty scheme unconstitutional. State prosecutors then dismissed their charges to allow federal authorities to prosecute him. When Cheever filed notice that he intended to introduce expert evidence that methamphetamine intoxication negated his ability to form specific intent, the Federal District Court ordered Cheever to submit to a psychiatric evaluation. The federal case was eventually dismissed without prejudice. Meanwhile, this Court held the State’s death penalty scheme constitutional, see Kansas v. Marsh, 548 U. S. 163. The State then brought a second prosecution. At trial, Cheever raised a voluntary intoxication defense, offering expert testimony regarding his methamphetamine use. In rebuttal, the State sought to present testimony from the expert who had examined Cheever by the Federal District Court order. Defense counsel objected, arguing that since Cheever had not agreed to the examination, introduction of the testimony would violate the Fifth Amendment proscription against compelling an accused to testify against himself. The trial court allowed the testimony, and the jury found Cheever guilty and voted to impose a death sentence. The Kansas Supreme Court vacated the conviction and sentence, relying on Estelle v. Smith, 451 U. S. 454, in which this Court held that a court-ordered psychiatric examination violated a defendant’s Fifth Amendment rights when the defendant neither initiated the examination nor put his mental capacity in dispute. The court distinguished the holding of Buchanan v. Kentucky, 483 U. S. 402, that a State may introduce the results of such an examination for the limited purpose of rebutting a mental-status defense, on the basis that voluntary intoxication is not a mental disease or defect under Kansas law.
