NJ cases give look at insanity defense

Low rate of success makes use in court rare

By: Kaitlyn Kanzler
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Experts say television has skewed the public's view on the use of insanity defenses in court. While details of the crimes can be salacious, the insanity cases that ever make it to jury trials are few and far between.
..... "It's a public misconception," said Kip Cornwell, a law professor at Seton Hall University. "It's rarely successful, because the standard is really high. there is a marked difference between severely mentally ill and severely mentally ill such that you don't understand what you did was wrong."
..... According to a study done by the National institute of Public Health, which looked at eight stats including New Jersey, an insanity plea was entered in less than 1% of criminal cases.
..... Cornwell said the rate of success for insanity defense is extremely low because while some people may be disturbed. they know actions violated societal norms. He said they don't often "sit well emotionally with juries."
..... Former North Jersey career prosecutor David Calviello said a majority of :bona fide" instantly defense cases are settled "amicably." He said it is often obvious there is a mental health issue and the public doesn't typically hear about them because they are settled without a traditional trial.
..... Instantly defenses are not often sued in lower-level offenses and are more likely to be argued in instances of violence.

Insanity defense history and process in NJ

..... New Jersey's legal standard for insanity is known as the M'Naghten rule, said Dr. Louis Schlesinger, a forensic psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. The rule is based on an old English case form 1843 in which a man named Danial M'Nagten tried to kill England's prime minister and fatally shot his secretary instead.
..... "The English court said you're not guilty by reasons of insanity if you have a defect of reason from disease of the mind," Schlesinger said. "It's not any old type of distorted thinking, because a lot of people think all kinds of weird things."
..... "You can't proceed against a defendant who's incompetent," Calviello said. "generally a defendant who just committed a crime had he is insane at that time, he is very likely incompetent at the time of the hearing, which is days or weeks later."
..... He said that often, through treatment and medication, a defendant can become competent and then proceed with an insanity defense.
.... A defendant using an insanity defense is examined by psychologists before going to trail.
.... According to defense attorney Brian Neary, there is a distinction between metal states. The first is a person's competency to stand trial, which he classified as dynamic.
..... The second is the person's mental state at the time of the incident, which Neary said is static.
..... Neary is currently representing Dieter Zimmermann, a Mahwah man accused of stabbing his wife in January 2021. Neary proffered an insanity defense, and the court is currently waiting for a report from the psychologists who evaluated Zimmermann.
..... As to the mental state so someone at the time of the incident, Neary said, Zimmermann is competent to stand trial, which is why he appears in court, but is using psychiatrists to determine his mental state at the time of his wife's killing.
.... After a report from the defense, prosecutors will be able to review it and then bring in their own experts to examine a defendant and render their won report.
..... Schlesinger said psychologist have to look at the facts of the case from the evidence available, including autopsy reports, witness statements and crime scene photos, in addition to evaluating the defendant.
..... If the experts agree that the defendant was insane at the time of the incident, there is typically stipulated trial.
.... After that, a judge will make a finding that the defendant is not guilty by reasons of insanity.
..... However, a person found not guilty by reason of insanity does not instantly walk out as a free person.
..... "The notion that the person, [an insanity defense] is how they get off and then they get right out, that's not really truthful," Neary said.
..... The court orders the person to be examined by psychiatrists typically at the Ann Klein forensic Center in Trenton.
..... Neary said there is typically a 90-day assessment of whether the person is a danger to themselves or others. Then, a psychologist from the center can tell the court that the person is not a danger or recommend that the person continue to be confined within a mental facility. The person is then brought back into court at six.-month intervals for what is known as a Krol hearing, named after a case argued before the state Supreme Court in 1975. A psychiatrist reports on the person's state of mind and whether or not they need to stay within the psychiatric facility, which could be for the rest of the defendant's life, Schesinger said.
..... "You don't assign them criminal responsibility, but at the same time society doesn't say: OK, go out the door," Neary said.
..... Calviello said it is extremely rare that an insanity defense actually goes to trial, and it is typically when there is a "clear difference in opinion.

A rare example in New Jersey

..... The recent Michael Barisone trial in Morris County serves as an example. Barisone was found not guilty by reason of insanity after the August 2019 shooting of one of his clients. It had been argued that Barisone was battling a delusional disorder that severely altered his thinking, leaving him detached from reality, paranoid and fearful for his life amid ongoing tensions with trainee Lauren Kanarek and her fiance.
..... Schlesinger testified in the Barisone case and opined that there was no basis to conclude Barisone had any sort of psychosis or detachment from reality. He gave a diagnosis of depression, which the defense psychologists also confirmed, as well as anxiety and obsessive-compulsive traits, but said none would have affected a person's ability to know the quality of their acts.
..... Cornwell said some of the advice he gives his students is to find the most persuasive expert possible when arguing a case.
..... However, it isn't just a battle of experts, Schlesinger said. Should a case go to trial, a jury uses common sense to look at the evidence presented. Schlesinger used the example of a man shooting his wife and leaving the crime scene to throw the gun into a river. He said the legal standard is that he knows the difference between right and wrong and, despite what experts may say, the jury needs to look at his actions.".
..... "Look at what he did - he left the crime scene and disposed of the murder weapon,: Schlesinger said. "That shows consciousness of guilt and therefore an awareness of the wrongfulness of his behavior."
..... Mental illness and committing crimes are not mutually exclusive, Calviello said.
..... "You can have a mental disease but commit a crime because you choose to commit a crime," he said. "It can be a very convenient defense for a criminal defendant when all other options to get out from under criminal liability are not available. Se we really have to be careful in making sure it;s appropriately applied."

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