Opinion ID: 2166621
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: charge of the court insanity

Text: BY THE COURT: In addition, you are instructed that when insanity is asserted as a defense, absence of motive is an appropriate consideration or factor to be employed in the determination of the issue of the defendant's insanity. Just as the presence of motive may be a relevant consideration in determining guilt, the absence of motive is a relevant consideration for you in determining whether the defendant was insane at the time he committed the acts complained of. It is entirely for you to determine what weight should be given the evidence concerning motive, on each of these issues. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have defined for you the offenses and some of the general principles of law that apply to the fifteen Informations and the twenty charges before you in this case. The Court has prepared and will furnish you with a verdict form for each Information, which form will indicate the charge, a brief summary of what the charge is, and an indication of the possible verdicts. In this case, one of the possible verdicts is not guilty by reason of insanity. If a defendant was legally insane at the time he committed an act, then the law excuses that act, even if it would otherwise constitute murder. And in such a case, the defendant should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. In this case, the defendant has asserted the defense of insanity. He has asserted that defense to each of the charges, to all of the charges involved in this case. I want you to know that the fact that the defendant asserts the defense does not mean that he has the burden of proving that he is insane. Indeed, when a defense of insanity is raised, as in this case, in addition to proving all of the elements I have outlined for each offense beyond a reasonable doubt, the Commonwealth is also required to prove the defendant's criminal responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt. That is, the Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not insane at the time of the alleged crime. The term insanity has a very special meaning in the criminal law. As you know now from the evidence, there are a number of tests or standards employed in different states for determining sanity, or, stated otherwise, for determining if a person is legally insane. Pennsylvania employs what is known as the M'Naghten test, while, as you heard, for instance, the State of Maryland employs a modified version of the American Law Institute standard. In addition to these two tests, there are other tests, such as the irresistible-impulse test. In this state, we have rejected all other tests and standards and we employ only one, and that is the M'Naghten test. I think everyone would agree that the acts involved in this case were not the product of a sound mind. The defendant in this case suffered from paranoia, but I hasten to add that mental disease or defect alone does not and cannot absolve a defendant from criminal responsibility. The M'Naghten test employed in this Commonwealth is a legal test. It is not a medical or theological test. Accordingly, the terms of the test are legal and the definition of those terms is a matter of law upon which you must follow my instructions. Our courts have declared, on many occasions, that neither social maladjustment nor lack of self-control, nor impulsiveness, nor psychoneurosis, nor emotional instability, nor all of such conditions combined constitute insanity within the criminal conception of that term. Abnormal conditions which medical science might regard as mental illness do not necessarily amount to what the law regards as insanity, in this state. The legal test or definition of insanity in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is this: A person is insane if, at the time of committing an act, he is, as a result of mental disease or defect, unable to understand the nature and quality of his act or to distinguish between right and wrong with respect to that act. Stated more simply, a person is insane if, at the time of committing an act, he is, as a result of mental disease or defect, either incapable of knowing what he is doing, or, if he does know what he is doing, is incapable of judging that it is wrong to do so. The term mental disease or defect in this test means a disease or infirmity of the mind, as distinguished, for example, from a mere fault of character, temperament or social adjustment. I would also advise you that under the Pennsylvania test for insanity, a defendant either understands the nature and quality of his acts or he does not. He is either able to distinguish between right and wrong or he is not. The test in Pennsylvania, unlike Maryland, where they absolve a defendant who lacks substantial capacity, recognizes no degree of incapacity. To be legally insane, the defendant must be completely or totally unable to understand the nature and quality of his act, or completely and totally unable to distinguish between right and wrong. You should also know and remember that Pennsylvania rejects any defense that a defendant felt compelled or couldn't stop himself from committing the acts or acted as a result of an irresistible impulse to kill. Any such defense cannot be accepted and cannot be the basis for a finding of insanity, in this Commonwealth or in this case. If insanity is to be the basis for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, it must be legal insanity under the test as I have outlined it for you. Did George Banks suffer from a mental disease or defect on the morning of September 25, 1982? Did George Banks know what he was doing on that morning? And if he did know what he was doing, was he capable of judging, at that time, that it was wrong to do so? Your first inquiry must be to determine whether or not the defendant suffered from a mental disease or defect on that date. If you decide that he did, you will then consider what is often referred to as the two-pronged test of M'Naghten. The first element of the test is knowledge, in the sense of awareness of the nature and quality of the act. It encompasses the ability of an accused to comprehend what he is doing. The words know the nature refer to the ability of a person to be aware of the physical characteristics of his act. If the accused knew that he was doing the act, shooting, the true character of his activity, then he knew the nature of his acts. Knowledge of the quality of the act refers to the ability to comprehend its harmfulness. This is sometimes described as knowledge of the consequences of the act. If the accused understood that shooting would cause serious bodily injury and possibly death, he understood the quality of his acts. The second element of the test is that the defendant be incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong with respect to that act. That is, he was incapable of judging that it was wrong to do so. An individual is unable to tell right from wrong with reference to the particular act charged if, at the time of the commission of the offense, he is unable to tell that his act is one which he ought not to do. If the accused knew his act was wrong, either legally or morally, then he cannot be excused for his crime, on this part of the test for insanity. Morality here would reflect societal standards and not those of a particular individual. An accused's knowledge that an act is illegal will permit the inference of knowledge that the act is wrong, according to generally accepted moral standards of a community. In determining the question of insanity, you should consider all the evidence, including the testimony of witnesses regarding the acts, words, conversations, behavior and appearance of the defendant before, at, and close to the time of the alleged crime, as well as the testimony of the expert witnesses and testimony of the witnesses concerning the defendant's general mental condition. The critical time when insanity must exist in order to be a defense is at the time when the alleged criminal act was committed. You have heard the evidence concerning the defendant, beginning many years prior to and at the time of and close to the acts, as well as some evidence concerning events and occurrences after the offenses involved. Although you may consider evidence of the defendant's mental condition before and after the time the offenses were committed, you may consider it only to help you decide or determine his sanity and state of mind at the time of the alleged crimes. In view of what I have said regarding the legal test of insanity and the Commonwealth's burden of proof, you cannot find the defendant guilty unless you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that at the time of the acts involved, that is, the killings, the attempted murder and the robbery, either the defendant had no mental disease or defect, or, if he did have a mental disease or defect, that he was not, as a result of such disease or defect, incapable of knowing what he was doing and of judging that it was wrong to do so. That is the test.