Reference no: EM133375760

Question: How can the provided information be put into an opening statement for the defense of Simon Hawley?

Case Study: He is a 29-year-old. He had been drinking almost continuously from March 7, 1966, until the date of the homicide on March 19, 1966. On that day he met a woman in Sacramento's West End. They spent the morning drinking wine and in the evening decided to have intercourse. Petitioner remembered seeing a mattress in an abandoned hotel. They entered the hotel and went into a small, dark room where decedent, Alejandro Lopez, also under the influence of liquor, was sleeping on the mattress. petitioner woke Lopez and asked him to leave. He got up, said something in Spanish and tried to kick petitioner, who knocked Lopez down with his fist. Hawley then had intercourse with his lady friend. Afterwards, Lopez made a remark that petitioner did not understand. Defendant grabbed a stick and hit Lopez with it until he stopped talking. He then dragged the still-alive Lopez into another room 50 feet away. He gathered papers and small sticks together around Lopez and lit them. Defendant does not [67 Cal.2d 826] remember any of the details, nor does he remember dragging Lopez or lighting the fire. Defendant then went out of the building, his lady friend left him, and he met and started to drink with a male friend. Defendant noticed there was no fire in the building he had vacated and took his friend inside. The friend saw the body, and called the police. The two men waited until the officers arrived. Defendant then related these facts to the officers and signed a statement. An autopsy revealed that the fire caused Lopez's death. The only damage to the building was a charring of the floor by the body. Defendant was indicted for murder and arson. He was represented by the public defender, who requested Dr. S. Green to prepare a psychiatric study of Defendant. In his report, Dr. Green reviewed Defendant's background. It showed that Defendant's mother, father and girl friend had all been killed in separate automobile accidents while they were intoxicated. Defendant had only completed the 10th grade in school. Since 1954 he spent about 10 months of every year in prison, each incident resulting in his incarceration occurring while he was intoxicated. Dr. Green found physical deterioration and dilapidation with consequential impairment of retention, memory and vocabulary. Defendant expressed no guilt about his actions and little concern over his fate. Dr. Green found him to be presently sane and responsible, but concluded as to his condition at the time of the crimes: "At the time of the alleged crime of arson, the effect of prolonged alcoholism would be so severe it would contaminate any intent he may have had. Furthermore, the amount of wilfulness and maliciousness would be severely restricted and he would be inable [sic] to comprehend such an action or govern himself.