State v. Tallabas

OPINION

FIDEL, Judge.

The defendant asserted the insanity defense; to support it he offered testimony by a psychiatrist to whose examination the trial court had ordered that he submit for determination of his competence to stand trial and investigation of his mental condition at the time of the offense. The defendant had made certain damaging statements to the psychiatrist, which, had he not called the psychiatrist as a witness, the state could not have placed in evidence. The question on appeal is whether, by calling the psychiatrist as his witness on the issue of insanity, the defendant…