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I agree. But, does that hold up in court? I doubt it would in say, Texas or Florida.
Depends what you mean by "hold up in court".
If you mean: will the judge let the defense argue for acquittal by reason of insanity, then yes, here. The definition varies by state so I cannot speak to TX or FL.
If you mean in reality, in terms of what juries find, then: no. No generally it doesn't. It is extremely rare that juries actually do a NGRI verdict. Jurors are under no obligation to speak about their verdicts and we cannot hassle them about it. They sometimes volunteer to talk to the prosecution and defense after a trial to give their thoughts. We're generally left with guesswork. But as I said to nota, above, I think the main problem in MA is that, because jurors are divorced from sentencing considerations, they don't get to hear about what actually happens to people acquitted due to insanity. Usually, keeping jurors away from sentencing (other than death penalty) is good. But here I think it hurts. They seem to assume that if they acquit the guy by reason of insanity, that he'll just get out and kill someone.
Not.
True.
They almost never leave when the crime was murder. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and suggest that they actually get out on parole in second degree murder cases more frequently than they are released from a psych place (whether 1st or 2nd degree) if put their via NGRI in a murder case. As for other crimes, they virtually uniformly (or actually straight-up uniformly - I don't have the stats in front of me this very second) spend significantly longer in a secure mental institution than they would have spent in a prison if convicted.
Jurors just don't know that and it colors their judgment. And it's so sad, so infuriating. Prison guards don't want these people in there. Inmates don't want them in there. They are quite insane and cause any number of problems, because on top of all the **** I just said, prisons go for the cheapest, easiest, most simple treatments. They shouldn't be called "treatments."
It's just another example of the pointless and cruel stupidity of an aspect of our legal system.
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