Court Opinion

ID: 9848254
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:15:24.311161+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:09.820197
License: Public Domain

Prager, J.,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from that portion of the opinion which rejects the American Law Institute Model Penal Code definition of criminal responsibility and adheres to the M’Naghten rule. The reasons for my position are discussed in detail in the dissenting opinion in State v. Smith, 223 Kan. 203, 211, 574 P.2d 548 (1977). Since Smith was decided in December of 1977, the Supreme Court of California in People v. Drew, 22 Cal. 3d 333, 149 Cal. Rptr. 275, 583 P.2d 1318 (1978), abolished the M’Naghten rule, which had been followed in that state for more than a century, and adopted the rule proposed by the American Law Institute. The opinion by Justice Tobriner in People v. Drew presents an excellent discussion of the deficiencies of the M’Naghten rule and the manifest superiority of the ALI rule. As I calculate it, the number of states which follow the M’Naghten rule has now been reduced from 18 to 17 states. I would reverse and remand the case for a new trial with directions to the trial court to instruct the jury on the ALI standards for legal insanity.