![]() ![]() This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City, KUNR in Nevada, the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado. In Utah, a bill that would have reintroduced the traditional insanity defense died earlier this month.įind reporter Madelyn Beck on Twitter 2020 Boise State Public Radio Since this case focused on due process rights, she said another plaintiff could argue a lack of traditional insanity defence violates their eighth amendment rights, or constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. ![]() The issue could make its way to the Supreme Court again under different circumstances, Sanders explained. “A lot of the court’s reasoning is this historic trend of allowing states autonomy on the question of their criminal law and procedure.” “What this case says is that on the large scale you don’t have to offer, but in an individualized circumstance, you may want to think about it,” Sanders said. She said the court’s decision in Kahler v. Shaakirrah Sanders is a law professor and constitutional scholar at the University of Idaho. An insanity defense is based on the theory that most people can choose to follow the law but a few select persons cannot be held accountable because mental. The court disagreed, and in a 6-3 opinion, said it’s up to the states whether they have a traditional insanity defense. He let his young son go free – the one he liked the most. He was charged with murdering his ex-wife, her mother and his two teenage daughters. One man in Kansas challenged the states’ decisions to scrap their insanity defense, saying he should be able to use it. But if you understand that what you did was illegal, you could still be found guilty, even if mental illness affected your ability to know the difference between right and wrong. You still can’t be convicted if you didn’t know you were committing a crime in those states (like if you think you’re flying a kite instead of committing that crime). That plea is extremely rare and difficult, but these four states, especially, were still concerned about abuse. In most states, defendants can plead “not guilty by reason of insanity.” In Kansas, Utah, Montana and Idaho, though, defendants haven’t been able to for decades. Only four states don’t have one in the U.S., and three of those are in the Mountain West. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can eliminate the traditional insanity defense.
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