Opinion ID: 1925880
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: 1982 Amendment Concerning Guilty But Mentally Ill

Text: In June 1982, John W. Hinckley, Jr., was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a case involving the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. The Hinckley trial took place in the District of Columbia. That trial focused national attention upon the use of the insanity defense in criminal trials. See, e.g., P. Low, J. Jeffries & R. Bonnie, The Trial of John W. Hinckley, Jr.: A Case Study in the Insanity Defense 1 (1986). Many state legislatures amended their statutes in this area of the law following the Hinckley trial. See Callahan, Mayer & Steadman, Insanity Defense Reform in the United States  Post-Hinckley, 11 Mental & Physical Disability L.Rep. 54 (1987). Within days of the Hinckley verdict, the Delaware General Assembly redefined the insanity defense in the Delaware Code, as we have noted, by eliminating the irresistible impulse defense and created the additional verdict option of guilty, but mentally ill. 63 Del.Laws, ch. 328, §§ 1-3 (codified as amended at 11 Del.C. §§ 401, 408, 409, 3905 (1987)). This legislative reform was designed to correct perceived deficiencies in the prior statute which presented juries with the limited and difficult choice of either finding a defendant guilty, despite concerns that a defendant's mental problems required treatment, or finding him not guilty by reason of insanity, even though a mentally-ill defendant appeared to appreciate the criminal nature of his conduct. [4] The synopsis to the Delaware legislation states that the new verdict option was largely patterned after similar statutory schemes developed in other states. See, e.g., Mich.Comp.Laws Ann. § 768.36 (West 1982). Those courts which have considered the verdict of guilty but mentally ill have explained that it encompasses the findings of both criminal responsibility and mental illness. E.g., People v. Delaughter, 124 Mich.App. 356, 335 N.W.2d 37, 39 (1983). The twofold purpose of this type of legislation has been described by the Michigan Supreme Court. First, [i]t is apparent that the Legislature's object in creating this new verdict was to assure supervised mental health treatment and care for those persons convicted under the laws of our state who are found to be suffering from mental illness, in the humane hope of restoring their mental health and possibly thereby deterring any future criminal conduct on their part. People v. McLeod, 407 Mich. 632, 288 N.W. 2d 909, 919 (1980). Second, the statutory provision is designed to assure the public that a criminally responsible and mentally ill defendant will not be returned to the streets to unleash further violence without having received necessary psychiatric care after sentencing. People v. Booth, 414 Mich. 343, 324 N.W.2d 741, 745 (1982). [5] The 1982 Delaware legislation appears to fit within the Michigan pattern. See 11 Del.C. §§ 401(b), 408(b), 409, 3905. See also McGraw, Farthing-Capowich & Keilitz, The Guilty But Mentally Ill Plea and Verdict: Current State of the Knowledge, 30 Vill.L.Rev. 117, 124-42 (1985). This new guilty but mentally ill alternative verdict differentiates between those defendants who fail to appreciate the wrongfulness of their conduct and are adjudged not guilty by reason of insanity, 11 Del.C. § 401(a), and those defendants who suffer from a mental illness (irresistible impulse) not amounting to insanity, 11 Del. C. § 401(b), but who require treatment for their mental illness. [6] This same classification in Michigan's statute has been found to be reasonable under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. People v. Darwall, 82 Mich.App. 652, 267 N.W.2d 472, 476 (1978).