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Supreme Court is asked to find that insanity defense is a constitutional right ( link )
By Robert Barnes
Washington Post, July 22, 2012
By Robert Barnes
Washington Post, July 22, 2012
Theres no doubt John Joseph Delling knew what he was doing. His carefully planned 2007 crime spree lasted weeks, covered 6,500 miles and culminated in two people dead and one seriously wounded.
He had his reasons, too. Delling, then 21, had become a type of Jesus, he later explained, and the men he attacked, two of them former classmates he had not seen in years, were stealing his energy. An MRI of his brain would have revealed the damage the men had already caused, he told authorities.
I had to defend myself, he said.
[...]
But Dellings case presents an intriguing legal question as well. He committed his crimes in Idaho, which is one of only four states Kansas, Montana and Utah are the others in which a defendant may not use insanity as a defense to criminal charges.
[...]
All states and the federal government once allowed the insanity defense. But that changed with the public outrage over John W. Hinckley Jr.s acquittal for reasons of insanity in his assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Many states and the federal government reacted by shifting the burden of proving insanity to the defense. But five states, including Nevada, abolished the insanity plea.
[...]
Despite its prominence in television crime dramas, the insanity defense is rarely invoked and is successful only about a quarter of the time, according to the most widely quoted study of its use.
[...]
The trial judge found that Delling did not have the ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct, but the judge still sentenced him to life imprisonment. Fisher said he is in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison.
Finding someone like Delling not guilty because of insanity does not mean allowing him among the general public, Fisher said, but confining him to a mental institution where he can receive treatment.
Idaho did not respond to Dellings petition, hoping that the justices will continue to defer to the states supreme court.
He had his reasons, too. Delling, then 21, had become a type of Jesus, he later explained, and the men he attacked, two of them former classmates he had not seen in years, were stealing his energy. An MRI of his brain would have revealed the damage the men had already caused, he told authorities.
I had to defend myself, he said.
[...]
But Dellings case presents an intriguing legal question as well. He committed his crimes in Idaho, which is one of only four states Kansas, Montana and Utah are the others in which a defendant may not use insanity as a defense to criminal charges.
[...]
All states and the federal government once allowed the insanity defense. But that changed with the public outrage over John W. Hinckley Jr.s acquittal for reasons of insanity in his assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Many states and the federal government reacted by shifting the burden of proving insanity to the defense. But five states, including Nevada, abolished the insanity plea.
[...]
Despite its prominence in television crime dramas, the insanity defense is rarely invoked and is successful only about a quarter of the time, according to the most widely quoted study of its use.
[...]
The trial judge found that Delling did not have the ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct, but the judge still sentenced him to life imprisonment. Fisher said he is in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison.
Finding someone like Delling not guilty because of insanity does not mean allowing him among the general public, Fisher said, but confining him to a mental institution where he can receive treatment.
Idaho did not respond to Dellings petition, hoping that the justices will continue to defer to the states supreme court.