History of Duane Owen's mental illness, Part II
In light of the litigation pending related to Owen’s mental competency for execution, this series reviews the entire history of evidence and documentation related to Owen’s mental illness.
That is the last line of the trial court’s 1999 sentencing order in which the court sentenced Duane Owen to death for the Slattery murder.
This series reviews the entire history of evidence and documentation related to Owen’s mental illness. (The last update on the litigation can be found here.) Part I can be found here.
Duane Owen’s execution is currently scheduled for June 15, 2023. The full background of Owen’s case can be found here.
1999 Retrial for Slattery Murder
At his 1999 retrial, Owen pursued an insanity defense.1 Several experts testified in both the guilt and penalty phases.
Dr. Waddell
Dr. Waddell testified at the trial for the State. Dr. Waddell administered certain tests to Owen. I have not been able to find a transcript of Dr. Waddell’s testimony.
Dr. Fredrick Berlin
Dr. Berlin testified in the guilt phase that Owen had “one or more psychiatric disorders”—specifically, “gender identity disorder, paraphiliac sexual disorder, and schizophrenia.”2
First, Dr. Berlin explained “gender identity disorder” as being where “an individual feels themselves subjectively to be a member of a gender that’s different from what they are and that nature would suggest.”3 He further stated that Owen began to believe that he was a female “very early on”:4
Second, Dr. Berlin explained “paraphiliac disorder” as “something abnormal about a person’s sexual makeup.”5 Dr. Berlin testified that Owen “certainly appear[ed] to be someone who was very disturbed in the sexual arena.”6
As to these first and second diagnoses, Dr. Berlin testified that neither disorder would cause Owen to not know what he was doing.7
Third, Dr. Berlin explained schizophrenia as “one of the major illnesses which a loss of touch with reality is one of the cardinal features.”8 The “primary factor” that led Dr. Berlin to conclude Owen suffers from schizophrenia was that he “appeared to be delusional.”9
Further, Dr. Berlin testified that Owen’s beliefs “have been in Mr. Owen over a sustained period of time, since early childhood, independent of any mood change.”
Dr. Berlin concluded that, to a reasonable medical certainty based on his serious mental illness of schizophrenia, Mr. Owen was insane at the time of the crime.10
Dr. Faye Sultan
Dr. Sultan testified that, upon meeting Owen, it became clear “that there were very severe mental illnesses involved.”11
Dr. Sultan spent approximately 20 hours with Owen.12 She testified that Owen asked her for “help in getting medical assistance for him because he needed to have his genitals removed.”13 Like Dr. Berlin, Dr. Sultan testified that Owen “truly believed that he was female.”14
Dr. Sultan testified that “the principal diagnosis” is a psychotic disorder. She also testified that “[h]e meets most of the criteria for a disorder called delusional disorder” and “meets the criteria . . . for a diagnosis of schizophrenia.”15 She also testified that Owen “has a very severe gender identity disorder” and a “paraphilia,” or “a way of being aroused and a series of behaviors that fall outside of what we, as a culture, rule to be acceptable.”16
Dr. Sultan testified that Owen had never received treatment for these illnesses, which do not “disappear without treatment.”17
Her conclusions were based mostly on background information and documentation rather than her conversations with Owen.
As to Owen’s mental state at the time of the crime, Dr. Sultan testified:
My thoughts are with everyone involved in the warrant and execution process.
This information is in the Briefing in Support of Vacating Death Sentences related to the Slattery murder, as filed on September 28, 2017, in the Palm Beach County trial court.
ROA at 381, 384. Dr. Berlin has an M.D. and PhD and is board certified in forensic psychiatry. A transcript of Dr. Berlin’s testimony is in the ROA starting at page 354.
ROA at 384-85.
ROA at 386.
ROA at 388.
ROA at 388.
ROA at 389.
ROA at 390.
ROA at 390.
ROA at 420-21.
ROA at 540. Dr. Sultan is a clinical psychologist with a doctorate in clinical psychology. A transcript of Dr. Sultan’s testimony is in the ROA starting at page 525.
ROA at 544.
ROA at 551.
ROA at 552.
ROA at 558.
ROA at 558-59.
ROA at 561.