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Page 6 University Daily Kansan, November 8, 1982
New insanity verdict unnecessary, experts say
By VERONICA JONGENELEN Staff Reporter
On March 30, 1981, John Hinkley Jr. blasted his way into the memory of the American people by firing six shots at President Reagan. One person there was the president; three other people also were shot.
Thirteen months later, his trial began. On June 22, 1982, the jury found him not guilty by reason of
The finding triggered outrage across the country. State officials throughout the country
In Kansas, an interim committee was set up to study an alternative to the insanity finding, one that several Hinkleck jurors said they would not accept. The court even available — the guilty but mentally ill verdict.
That verdict, proposed to the Kansas Legislature this year for the fourth time, may have popular public support, but few who have studied it think the verdict is needed.
THE VERDICT, as proposed by Attorney General Robert Stephen, would send a defendant, if found guilty but mentally ill, to a secure mental hospital to receive treatment until he is well. Once doctors determine the person is no longer ill, he will finish his sentence in a prison.
The jury could only find a person guilty but
mentally ill if the defendant raised the insanity defense, Stephan said.
Each jury then would have four options when presented with this defense, said Neil Wemeron, special assistant to the attorney general. They would be able to find the defendant guilty, not guilty, not guilty by reason of insanity or guilty but mentally ill.
Stephan's proposed verdict was roughly based on Michigan's guilty but mentally ill verdict, and he could have been more correct.
Support for the guilty but mentally ill verdict came from people who dislike the insanity defense, said David Gottlieb, KU associate professor of law.
"I BELIEVE it's being proposed because the insanity defense is politically very unpopular," he said.
The insanity defense was disliked for two reasons, he said.
People feel that it's unfair for someone who committed a terrible crime to be found not guilty, even if he was mentally ill, Gottlieb said. Second, he said, the public does not feel adequately protected if a criminal could be on the street again in 39 to 90 days.
The public believes that those criminals found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to mental hospitals were not being punished, said William Arnold, associate professor of sociology.
That view was not accurate, he said. Many times, offenders ended up spending more time in jail than before.
But the guilty but mentally ill verdict may not be the answer to public dislike of the insanity defense.
TERENCE MACCARTHY. U.S. public dender in Chicago, said recently, "There's a really big problem with our schools."
MacCarthy is chairman of an American Bar Association task force that recently recommended rejection of the verdict to the ABA funding committee on criminal justice standards.
Kansas does not need a guilty but mentally ill option because there was very little abuse of the insanity defense here, said Michael Barbara, Washburn Law School professor.
An average of 10 crimes a year in Kansas result in not guilty by reason of insanity verdicts. In Shawne County, the defense had not been raised successfully in the last 30 years, he said.
The test used in Kansas, the MacNaughton rule, was strict enough to prevent anyone who was not insane from being judged that way, said Frey, Frey. R/Liberal, head of the interim committee.
ACCORDING TO this rule, it must be proved that the defendant did not know, at the time of the crime, the nature and the quality of his actions. Or, if he did know, it must be proved that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong.
Because the MacNaughten rule was so strict, Frey said, his committee would not recommend the verdict.
"That's a pretty tough rule. It appears to be working just fine in Kansas," he said.
But there have been problems in applying the MacNaughten rule evenly. Woermen said. He cited a case where Stephan, as a trial judge, had defense attorneys argue that the defendant was insane for the 10 seconds it took him to commit the crime.
THE JURY thought that the defendant was guilty, but also that he was insane. Although the defendant did not fit the MacNaughten stan- dence, he decided for the defense, Woermein said
"If the MacNaughten rule were in every case strictly applied and strictly looked at, maybe we wouldn't have these travesties of justice." he said.
Another problem arising from the insanity defense is treatment.
After someone was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a security hospital, he received a hearing at which a judge decides whether the county District Court Judge James Pardockle
A concern for the jury in the case of Bradley Boan was that the defendant might be on the street again in 30 to 96 days, said Kevin Koch, co-counsel for the defense in the Boni trial.
A guilty but mentally ill option for the jury in
BOAN WAS found guilty Oct. 6 if first-degree murder in the University of Kansas Medical
Boan's case would have helped his client, Koch said.
"I feel, in this case, that may have made a difference," he said. "I hope they will, this time, hopefully go ahead and give him some treatment at Larned (State Hospital)."
If the jury had the option of deciding between not guilty by reason of insanity and guilt but mentally ill, then it also decided what treatment the defendant received. Gettlieb said.
"It is not clear to me at all why the jury is making that decision. The jury should be there to decide guilt or innocence, not prescribing a course of treatment." he said.
The therapy differs at each hospital.
OVERCROWDING OF mental facilities also was a possibility with the guilty but mentally ill verdict. Arnold said.
If the proposed verdict was passed, Arnold said, more people who commit crimes would be found mentally ill and be secured to secure Larned State Hospital already was too crowded.
Woermeen over crowding would not be a problem because of the rarity of the insanity
When Stephan proposed the verdict to the Legislature, Woermen said, he quoted a letter from Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley.
Kelley that, since 1979, Michigan, with a population four times that of Kansas and a murder rate seven times higher, had an average of only 40 guilty but mentally ill verdicts a year.
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