Alaska may abandon criminal verdict behind longer sentences for mentally ill
Source: The Guardian
Alaska may abandon criminal verdict behind longer sentences for mentally ill
Since the 1980s, inmates deemed ‘guilty but mentally ill’ have not been
eligible for parole – leading to sentences up to three times longer than
what a ‘sane’ person would face for the same crime
Erika Eichelberger
Monday 4 April 2016 13.00 BST
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Monroe’s harsh punishment is mandated by criminal justice reforms that Alaska implemented in 1982. After John Hinckley Jr was found not guilty by reason of insanity of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, many states rushed to limit the insanity defense – but Alaska’s reforms were the most severe.
The state made it nearly impossible to invoke the not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) verdict. And it created the new “guilty but mentally ill” (GBMI) verdict, which is even harsher than a regular guilty verdict, for defendants who, like Monroe, are actually less culpable by reason of their mental disability, and who previously would have been acquitted and sent to a mental institution for treatment.
“Guilty but mentally ill” inmates are not eligible for parole, which means that they are condemned to serve sentences of up to three times longer than “sane” defendants found guilty of the same crime – in a prison setting likely to only worsen their illness. The upshot of the 1982 reforms has actually been to deter defendants from even raising the issue of mental illness at trial, so that even as the Alaska courts have handed down few GBMI verdicts over the years, severely mentally ill offenders have also been denied the chance at acquittal and treatment.
It is for these reasons that, for the first time since Alaska implemented its insanity defense reforms, the state is considering junking the GBMI verdict.
“From the point of view of a rational criminal code, (GBMI) makes no sense,” says Stephen Morse, a professor of psychology and law in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/04/alaska-guilty-verdict-mentally-ill