Court Opinion

ID: 9720486
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:32:35.221947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:03:38.893609
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HEIPLE, dissenting: In these two consolidated but unrelated criminal cases, juries found defendants guilty but mentally ill (hereinafter GBMI) of first degree murder. On appeal, defendants argued that the GBMI verdict violates the due process clauses of the United States and Illinois Constitutions because it imposes conflicting burdens of proof on defendants in insanity defense cases and encourages compromise verdicts. The majority rejects both of these arguments and holds that the GBMI verdict is constitutional. While I agree with the majority that the GBMI verdict does not impose conflicting burdens of proof, I cannot join the majority’s holding that the GBMI verdict does not encourage compromise verdicts. GBMI is a meaningless verdict which dupes the jury into believing that there is a middle ground between guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. In reality, the GBMI verdict is no different from a guilty verdict. Presenting this option to the jury encourages compromise verdicts and injects irrelevant sentencing considerations into the jury’s determination of defendant’s criminal culpability. Such results are incompatible with due process of law. Therefore, I respectfully dissent. This court concluded in People v. Fierer, 124 Ill. 2d 176 (1988), that “the interrelationship between the insanity and GBMI statutes is rife with potential confusion and other difficulties.” Fierer, 124 Ill. 2d at 189. The pattern jury instructions for a GBMI verdict are so woefully inadequate that the jury is left simply to guess at its meaning. As a result of this confusion, juries inevitably will conclude that GBMI is a middle ground between a guilty verdict and a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict. Few juries will realize that this middle ground is illusory and, in reality, “there is no difference between being found guilty and being found guilty but mentally ill that is likely to benefit a defendant.” Report of the Governor’s Commission to Revise the Mental Health Code of Illinois 61 (1989). A GBMI verdict does not result in a reduced sentence. A defendant found GBMI may be sentenced to the full range of punishments, including the death penalty, that may be imposed when a defendant is found guilty. People v. Crews, 122 Ill. 2d 266, 277 (1988). Nor does a GBMI verdict guarantee that a defendant will receive treatment for his mental illness while incarcerated. 730 ILCS 5/5 — 2—6(b) (West 1996).1 A GBMI verdict rendered by a jury operating under these inevitable misconceptions is a false compromise verdict and renders defendant’s trial so fundamentally unfair that it violates due process. See People v. Smith, 152 Ill. 2d 229, 269 (1992), quoting Donnelly v. De Christoforo, 416 U.S. 637, 645, 40 L. Ed. 2d 431, 438, 94 S. Ct. 1868, 1872 (1974). The majority advances two justifications for the GBMI verdict. First, the majority asserts that the GBMI verdict helps “clarify” for the jury the differences between insanity and mental illness that falls short of insanity. 186 Ill. 2d at 258. The majority concludes that “ ‘[t]he legislature could well have believed that many defendants were being found not guilty by reason of insanity even though they did not satisfy the legal standard for the defense.’ ” 186 Ill. 2d at 258, quoting Weismiller v. Lane, 815 F.2d 1106, 1112 (7th Cir. 1987). This is a remarkably cynical view of juries’ ability to follow the law in insanity defense cases. One of the most basic assumptions underlying the right to a jury trial is that juries are able to follow instructions. People v. Cole, 131 Ill. App. 3d 36, 42 (1985). The majority does not cite any empirical evidence to support its assertion to the contrary. Reducing the number of purportedly “erroneous” verdicts of not guilty by reason of insanity may be a legitimate state interest, but the GBMI verdict is an illegitimate means for advancing this interest. The State cannot attempt to reduce the number of not guilty by reason of insanity verdicts by presenting the jury with a misleading verdict which is devoid of any consequence and entices the jury to reach a false compromise verdict. Subterfuge is incompatible with the principle of fundamental fairness which animates the due process clause'. Smith, 152 Ill. 2d at 269. The majority also asserts that the GBMI verdict enables the jury to identify offenders who need psychiatric treatment while they are incarcerated.2 186 Ill. 2d at 259. This argument is specious. There is absolutely no need for the jury to signal to the court or the Department of Corrections that a defendant is mentally ill and needs psychiatric treatment. The Department of Corrections is required to evaluate every convict’s medical and psychological history (as well as the circumstances of the offense) and recommend appropriate medical and psychiatric treatment when the convict is first incarcerated. 730 ILCS 5/3 — 8—2 (West 1996). Such an evaluation is far superior to a GBMI verdict because it is made by qualified experts rather than by jurors with little or no expertise in this area. On a more fundamental level, juries have no business deciding whether criminal defendants need psychiatric treatment. The jury’s function is to determine defendant’s guilt. People v. McDonald, 62 Ill. 2d 448, 456 (1975). Juries are not empaneled to act as psychiatrists, social workers or priests. Whether a criminal defendant is mentally ill and needs psychiatric treatment is an “extraneous and irrelevant matter[ ]” which has no bearing on the defendant’s criminal culpability and responsibility for his actions. See People v. Meeker, 86 Ill. App. 3d 162, 170 (1980); see also ABA Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards, Standard 7 — 6.10, Commentary at 393 (1989) (stating GBMI is “not a proper verdict at all” but instead is “a dispositional mechanism transferred to the guilt determination phase of the criminal process”). Allowing the jury to consider the consequences of its verdict invites the jury to reach a compromise verdict. Meeker, 86 Ill. App. 3d at 170; People v. Stack, 244 Ill. App. 3d 166, 178 (1993); People v. Glenn, 233 Ill. App. 3d 666, 680 (1992). The majority attempts to evade the problem of compromise verdicts by stating that the jury simply need not be informed that the only effect of a GBMI verdict is to signal to the court or the Department of Corrections that defendant needs psychiatric treatment. 186 Ill. 2d at 259. This argument compounds rather than resolves the problem with the GBMI verdict. It does not change the fact that the jiiry is performing an illegitimate function. Not informing the jury what function it is performing when it finds a defendant GBMI is self-defeating because it guarantees that the signal the jury sends to the court or the Department of Corrections will be an ill-informed one. The majority’s willingness to endorse the manipulation of juries corrupts both the jury system and the rule of law. Ultimately, the GBMI verdict presents a choice between a fundamentally fair criminal justice system and one which merely appears to be fair. The GBMI verdict is incompatible with due process of law and should be declared unconstitutional. For all of these reasons, I respectfully dissent.  Section 5 — 2—6 of the Unified Code of Corrections leaves treatment of a GBMI offender completely within the discretion of the Department of Corrections. That section provides that “[t]he Department of Corrections shall provide such psychiatric, psychological, or other counseling and treatment for the [GBMI] defendant as it determines necessary.” (Emphasis added.) 730 ILCS 5/5 — 2—6(b) (West 1996). Nothing prevents the Department of Corrections from simply ignoring the jury’s determination that a defendant is mentally ill and providing no treatment once the defendant is incarcerated. See People v. Marshall, 114 Ill. App. 3d 217 (1983) (GBMI verdict does not create a right to treatment beyond the constitutional right to minimally adequate health care available to all prisoners). In fact, even when defendants found GBMI do receive psychiatric treatment, it is identical to the treatment provided to defendants who are simply found guilty. Report of the Governor’s Commission to Revise the Mental Health Code of Illinois 61 (1989).   Of course this “signaling” justification does not apply in cases where the GBMI offender receives the death penalty. See People v. Crews, 122 Ill. 2d 266 (1988) (holding GBMI verdict does not preclude imposition of the death penalty).