Opinion ID: 2538692
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Insanity Testimony at Trial

Text: The defendant argued that she was unable to distinguish between right and wrong at the time of the killing, and therefore should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. In support of this position, the defense introduced evidence regarding the defendant's mental, physical, and emotional deterioration in the months before the shooting. The defense also presented expert testimony regarding the defendant's insanity at the moment of the killing. A licensed clinical social worker and a psychologist both testified that the defendant was severely depressed, perhaps psychotically so, and showed highly suicidal tendencies. A psychiatrist concurred with those findings, diagnosed the defendant as having dissociated at the moment of the shooting, and concluded that the defendant lacked the ability to form the intent to kill or to distinguish between right and wrong at the moment she shot the victim. The psychiatrist further opined that the defendant began to come out of her dissociative state that same day, most likely at the moment she shot herself through the chest, and therefore was no longer dissociating by the time she was interviewed by police and medical personnel. In order to refute the defense of not guilty by reason of insanity, the prosecution relied upon the testimony regarding the defendant's uncommunicativeness as tending to establish her awareness that she had done something wrong. [5] Additionally, the prosecution produced expert testimony that the defendant was legally sane at the time of the killing. The prosecution's psychiatrists determined that the defendant was severely depressed and that she had a borderline personality disorder, but concluded that she probably was not psychotic. One prosecution psychiatrist speculated that if the defendant had truly dissociated and did not remember the killings, she likely would have inquired about what had happened rather than remained silent. Nevertheless, that psychiatrist agreed with the other prosecution experts that even if the defendant did in fact dissociate and genuinely experience memory loss regarding the shooting, she was capable of distinguishing right from wrong and of forming the intent to kill, and therefore was legally sane at the time she shot the victim. Thus, it appears that the prosecution experts who testified as to the defendant's sanity at the moment of the killing did not rely in any meaningful way upon the defendant's non-responsiveness several hours later. Additionally, the key expert for the defense suggested that the defendant's dissociative state, the very foundation for her insanity defense, likely lapsed before any of the testifying police or medical personnel interacted with her. Because the defendant's sanity at the moment of the killing was the central issue at trial, we must consider the evidentiary value of her silence within the context of this expert testimony.