Opinion ID: 793602
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Widespread Use of Insanity in Deific Decree Cases

Text: 191 For over two hundred years, trial counsel have presented the insanity defense in deific decree cases in many states, including Ohio, and in England. See State v. Lafferty, 20 P.3d 342, 363 (Utah 2001) (Mormon fundamentalist, who killed his sister-in-law and her infant child pursuant to God's removal revelation, presented insanity defense to jury); People v. Coddington, 23 Cal.4th 529, 97 Cal.Rptr.2d 528, 2 P.3d 1081, 1103, 1110-14 (2000), overruled on different grounds by Price v. Superior Court, 25 Cal.4th 1046, 108 Cal. Rptr.2d 409, 25 P.3d 618, 633 n. 13 (2001) (defendant presented insanity defense to jury after strangling chaperones of two girls he sexually abused professedly because God commanded the actions); State v. Blair, 143 N.H. 669, 732 A.2d 448, 449-50 (1999) (counsel presented insanity defense to jury in case in which husband bludgeoned his wife and son with a hammer after experiencing a trance in which God revealed that he would be cast into the lake of fire if he refused to do so); People v. Serravo, 823 P.2d 128, 130 (Colo. 1992) (en banc) (jury found defendant not guilty by reason of insanity for stabbing his wife in order to sever the marriage bond in accordance with God's purported instructions); State v. Ryan, 233 Neb. 74, 444 N.W.2d 610, 632 (1989) (cult leader entered plea of not guilty by reason of insanity after following Yahweh's command to torture and kill an unfaithful cult member); Laney v. State, 486 So.2d 1242, 1245-46 (Miss.1986) (defendant shot police officers because God purportedly commanded the act and presented insanity defense to jury); State v. Cameron, 100 Wash.2d 520, 674 P.2d 650, 654 (1983) (en banc) (jury question regarding insanity defense existed when defendant implemented God's command to stab repeatedly his stepmother to stop the evil spirit within her); State v. Malumphy, 105 Ariz. 200, 461 P.2d 677, 678 (1969) (defendant, who shot and killed two co-employees due to his belief that God sanctioned the deeds, presented insanity defense to jury); State v. Di Paolo, 34 N.J. 279, 168 A.2d 401, 407-08 (1961) (defendant repeatedly stabbed ex-girlfriend because God professedly commanded the actions and presented insanity defense to jury); People v. Schmidt, 216 N.Y. 324, 110 N.E. 945, 945 (1915) (defendant, who claimed God commanded him to kill a woman as a sacrifice, presented insanity defense to jury); State v. Hudson, No. 01C01-9508-CC-00270, 1999 WL 77844, at , 8 (Tenn.Crim.App. Feb.19, 1999) (appellate court remanded for entry of a judgment of not guilty by reason of insanity in case in which defendant shot her one-month-old nephew, believing that God had instructed her to kill the son of Satan); State v. McDaniel, No. 18805, 1998 WL 887184, at -3 (Ohio Ct.App. Dec. 16, 1998) (defendant, after experiencing religious delusion that God commanded him to kill his wife with a baseball bat, presented insanity defense to jury); Ivery v. State, 686 So.2d 495, 499-503 (Ala.Crim.App.1996) (defendant, who claimed to be the ninja of God and to have followed God's command to kill people at will and to take their money as the spoils of victory, presented insanity defense to jury); People v. Wilhoite, 228 Ill.App.3d 12, 169 Ill.Dec. 561, 592 N.E.2d 48, 55-58 (1991) (court found defendant not guilty by reason of insanity after she followed God's command to shove her nine-year-old daughter out of apartment window to pass a test to see if the defendant could get into heaven prior to the imminent end of the world); Perkey v. Cardwell, 369 F.Supp. 770, 770-74 (S.D.Ohio 1973), aff'd, 492 F.2d 1244 (6th Cir.1974) (defendant claimed he was carrying out God's orders by shooting victim and entered plea of not guilty by reason of insanity); United States v. Guiteau, 10 F. 161, 186 (D.D.C.1882) (defendant alleged he was following God's command to kill the president and presented insanity defense to jury); Elizabeth Mehren, Fellow Inmate Guilty of Murdering Ex-Priest, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 26, 2006, at A15 (Massachusetts inmate, who claimed God commanded him to kill defrocked priest, presented insanity defense to jury); Mom Who Killed Kids with Rocks Committed to Mental Hospital, Chi. Trib., Apr. 7, 2004, at 8 (Texas jury found mother innocent by reason of insanity after she stoned two of her young sons to death with heavy rocks professedly in accordance with God's instructions); Richard Moran, The Origin of Insanity as a Special Verdict: The Trial for Treason of James Hadfield (1800), 19 Law & Soc'y Rev. 487, 508 (1985) (jury acquitted defendant who pled insanity defense following attempted shooting of the king of England purportedly at God's direction); cf. State v. Wilson, 242 Conn. 605, 700 A.2d 633, 641 (1997) (An individual laboring under a delusion that causes him to believe in the divine approbation of his conduct is an individual who, in all practicality, is unlikely to be able fully to appreciate the wrongfulness of that conduct.). 1 192 In fact, the insanity defense was even raised in the trial of one of Lundgren's cult followers, see State v. Luff, 85 Ohio App.3d 785, 621 N.E.2d 493, 498 (1993), but, to the puzzlement of the prosecutors, was not presented in Lundgren's own case: 193 None of the cult defendants had as yet pled [not guilty by reason of insanity], even though the acts in question were so illogical, and some of the other conduct of the group members was so bizarre that the prosecutors had wondered why at least one of them had not entered such a plea. 194 Cynthia Stalter Sassé & Peggy Murphy Widder, The Kirtland Massacre 273 (1991) (full-length book co-written by one of Lundgren's prosecutors). 195