State v. Cameron

Facts

D stabbed Marie Cameron in excess of 70 times, leaving the knife sticking in her heart. The body was left in the bathtub. Later that day a police officer saw D in downtown Shelton wearing only a pair of women's stretch pants, a woman's housecoat, a shirt, and no shoes. He was stopped and questioned. D gave a false name, but corrected it and explained he was dressed that way because 'I just grabbed what I could . . . My mother-in-law turned vicious.' D was headed to California. The Officer released him. The next day D was detained by the Oregon State Police as he wandered along the shoulder of Interstate 5 near Salem. From his appearance, they thought he was an escapee from a nearby mental hospital. They discovered that D was wanted in Shelton for the death of Marie Cameron. D gave two confessions, the first being a tape-recorded oral confession and the second a signed written confession. D claimed he left home dressed as he was because his stepmother had become violent. 'She's into different types of sorcery. She's just strictly a very evil person . . . and she became very violent with me, with a knife in her hand, and so, uh, I don't deny that I'm the one that did what went on out there.' When he walked into the bathroom he had not expected her. She had the knife which he was able to take from her easily by bending her wrist back. Then, as he stated: 'I took the knife and really stabbed her.' 'I just kept stabbing her and stabbing her, because she wasn't feeling . . . it was as if she was laughing . . . as if she was up to something that morning, and I don't know . . . she plays around with witchcraft and that stuff . . .' 'She kept moving and moving and moving, and kind of grabbed me like this, but laughing, as if she was enjoying . . . and it was kind of sickening, but it was really maddening to me, because of her offense towards me, it was like . . . you know, it was almost like she was mechanical . . . I mean, the thing was set up that, that's what she wanted to happen. . . . I feel that deep inside she was asking somebody to put her out of her misery . . . she was very symbolic with the 'Scarlet Whore Beast' she was very much into sorcery very, uh, anti-God, not really anti-God but takes the God's truth and twists it into sorcery.' 'I felt confused . . . I felt no different from the beginning than the end there was no difference. . . . legally I know, that it is against the law, but as far as right and wrong in the eye of God, I would say I felt no particular wrong.' 'I washed the blood off me, and I changed clothes, and then I looked back at her and she was, uh, she was still moving around, after being stabbed, what I thought was in the heart and the throat . . . about seven or eight times, and she just . . . she kept moving. It was like, . . . there was a smile on her face, she kept lunging for me, while she was dead . . . I wasn't trying to be vicious . . . it would look that way, but that wasn't the intent, but she kept lunging at me, over and over again, and the nature of her attack, I was, ah, mad enough I wanted to kill her, I felt that I was justified in self-defense at that point . . .' The last petitioner saw of the knife 'I tried to stick it in her heart . . . she's some kind of an animal.' 'She's into a very strong sorcery trip, and that's why so many stab wounds . . . I'm not a goring [sic] person . . . I've never been violent in my life, but for some reason . . . there was some evil spirit behind her that was . . . it was like, it was like there was something within her that, that wasn't really part of her body . . . she was smiling . . . she was almost like enjoying playing and it was disgusting.' D wrote: 'My attack wasn't a vicious attack the first time. I was trying to stop the spirit that was moving in her. She kept saying, 'Gary, Gary, Gary', as if she was enjoying it.' When she stopped moving he washed himself, changed his clothes, and then 'My stepmother started moving again as if a spirit was in her. I took the knife and started stabbing her again. When I realized there was something in her that wouldn't stop moving, I started stabbing her in the head and heart. I wanted to kill the spirit that seemed to be attacking my spirit.' D made a motion to acquit on the ground of insanity. Doctors Jarvis, Allison and Bremner, and a psychologist, Dr. Trowbridge, were called to testify. They agreed that D suffered from paranoid schizophrenia both at the time of the killing and at the time of trial. All four appeared to agree that D believed he was an agent of God, required to carry out God's directions. They also agreed that D believed God commanded him to kill his stepmother and that he was therefore obligated to kill the 'evil spirit'. All doctors concurred he was legally insane at the time of the murder. The court submitted the issue of insanity to the jury. At trial, the four doctors agreed that at the time of the killing, and at the time of trial, D suffered from the mental disease of paranoid schizophrenia. They agreed petitioner understood that, as a mechanical thing, he was killing his stepmother and knew it was against the laws of man. They stated that D was preoccupied with the delusional belief that his stepmother was an agent of Satan who was persecuting him, as were others like Yasser Arafat and Ayatollah Khomeini. He believed he was being directed [by God to kill Satan's angel and that by so doing, he was obeying God's higher directive or law. At this time he believed himself to be a messiah and compared himself with Jesus Christ. D had no remorse over the killing. He felt it was justified by God and that he was merely doing a service. The experts opined that while D understood it was against the law to kill, he believed he was responding to God's directive and thus had an obligation to rid the world of this 'demon', 'sorceress' or 'evil spirit.' D did not have the capacity to discern between right and wrong with reference to the act. Some of the doctors expressed the clear view that at the time of the killing, he was unable to appreciate the nature and quality of his acts. The trial court gave standard pattern jury instruction 20.01, but, over D's exception, added a last paragraph which defines 'right and wrong.' D has entered a plea of guilty and also of insanity existing at the time of the act charged. The court's jury instruction read: 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 right from wrong with reference to the particular acts with which defendant is charged. D was convicted and appealed. It was affirmed. D appealed. D argues that the trial court should have left the term 'right and wrong' undefined as it excluded from the jury's deliberation the consideration of 'right and wrong' in terms of one's ability to understand the moral qualities of the act.

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

© 2007-2024 ABN Study Partner.