Court Opinion

ID: 9715217
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:57:49.728158+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:32.629895
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
concurring in result.
This case and the statute which it construes mark a decided change in the law governing the administration of criminal justice by our courts. Indiana Code § 35-41-4-1, provides:
“(a) A person may be convicted of an offense only if his guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
“(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), the burden of proof is on the defendant to establish the defense of insanity (IC 35-41-3-6) by a preponderance of the evidence.”
Under this legislative directive, we shelve a source of some pride in the judicial process by which the determination of guilt has been arrived at. Heretofore the verdict or finding of guilty in a criminal case in which the issue of insanity of the accused at the time of the offense has been fairly, squarely and openly presented, included a determination to a certainty beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was sane at the time of the offense, i. e., that he had the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the legal norm. Judges and lawyers have, I believe, taken pride in the fact that the guilt label is not applied where that issue is before the court or jury unless the requisite mental capacity is shown to exist to the highest level of certainty. Guilt in such cases has throughout our recent legal past been reserved to those with the demonstrated mental capacity to distinguish between right and wrong. Now, we must turn away from thinking of guilt in this manner.
Under the statute above which guides us now, the finding or verdict of guilty need not resolve the question of whether the accused had the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the legal norm. It is now permissible, and even desirable for the jury in a case in which sanity of the accused is an issue and fully litigated, to conclude that the accused is guilty as charged, but we do not know, we cannot tell, whether he had the requisite mental capacity or not. Judges and lawyers must now accept such determinations of guilt as regular.
The above statute operates by relieving the State of the burden of proving the sanity of the accused when that issue is raised. We must accept the loss of this measure which maximized the court’s ability to discern the dangerously insane defendant, and accept in its stead one which carries with it an increased risk that trial judges and juries will label guilty those who have no capacity to determine the difference between right and wrong.
The statute under consideration is closely related to the following two statutes:
Ind.Code § 35-41-3-6:
“(a) A person is not responsible for having engaged in prohibited conduct if, as a result of mental disease or defect, he lacked substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of the conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law.
“(b) ‘Mental disease or defect’ does not include an abnormality manifested only by repeated unlawful or antisocial conduct.” (Emphasis added.)
Ind.Code § 35-5-2-3:
“(a) In all cases in which the defense of insanity is interposed the jury (or the *789court if tried by it) shall find whether the defendant is:
(1) Guilty;
(2) Not guilty; or
(3) Not responsible by reason of insanity at the time of the offense.
“(b) ‘Insanity’ refers to the defense set out in IC 35-41-3-6.
“(c) ‘Mentally ill’ means having a mental illness as defined by IC 16-14-9.1-1.” (Emphasis added.)
These two statutes are themselves closely allied through their incorporation of the responsibility concept. It is now unmistakable from these three statutes that the interposition of the insanity defense by the accused calls for what amounts to an inquest into his mental condition at the time of the crime. There is little justification to referring to a defense of insanity at all, as a defendant who successfully convinces a jury of his insanity receives for his trouble the verdict of not responsible by reason of insanity. As a further consequence of such success the legally insane defendant is placed on a separate track towards confinement under the auspices of attendants and doctors rather than on a track towards confinement under the auspices of guards and wardens.
The statutes mean that the inquest called for by the accused is to be considered a separate and distinct matter from the trial on the charges; however they deem it expedient to conduct it at the same time as the trial on the charges. Held in this perspective, appellant’s argument that it is unfair and unjust to place the burden to prove insanity on the accused, is properly rejected, as there is nothing unfair about placing a burden of proof upon a movant at a hearing into his subjective condition. He is best suited to have that burden.
Finally, the court has jumped the gun today in attempting to consider the constitutionality of this statute. I find no such issue raised in appellant’s brief; indeed, I find no reference at all in it to either constitution or to any case dealing with the constitutionality of similar legislation. I therefore do not join the majority in expressing a view regarding the statute’s validity.