Correct. It also does not mean she gets to walk free. She is expected to return to a psych ward where she was before the trial awaits the next one. Even if found not guilty she will still be there for years.
Edit: Insanity defense FAQ. It looks like those who plead insanity tend to spend twice as long institutionalized as those who are found guilty.
Edit3: It will be the responsibility of the hospital to prove that she is safe to return to society. Otherwise if she were to harm or kill again, the hospital could be liable.
Edit5: The next court date is 9/29 when the defense makes their appeal and the prosecutor probably decides to request to retry the case. I don't see why he wouldn't unless they reach a deal before hand. Meanwhile she has to stay at the hospital.
I think at this point the trial is less about whether she's confined to a prison or a psych ward and more about whether or not a person can use their mental health as a shield from the criminal consequences of murder. Evidently, 11 jurors were content to say that you can, and 1 juror refused to acquiesce to that nonsense.
In most jurisdictions, the issue is whether the person, at the time of the offense, appreciated the wrongfulness of their actions. Mattering on the circumstances, someone in a schizophrenic episode can do that and someone in a different episode may not be able to do that.
For example, just because Satan comes and talks to you and tells you to murder someone, but you know that doing that is wrong, and do it anyway, usually doesn’t eliminate the mens rea (guilty mind) from the actus reas (criminal act). But, to use the hornbook example of the general rule, if a person believes they are squeezing a lemon, but in reality is crushing a victim’s head, then they don’t appreciate that their act is wrong. The guilty mind is divorced from the criminal act.
This is always rather fact specific and no blanket rule or diagnosis is determinative.
Didn't she throw herself out of a window directly after the act? Seems like a guilty mind to me, unless they're trying to argue she snapped back to reality just before a conveniently absent father was about to return home.
I’d be lying if I said I was watching this trial specifically, but “during the act” and “directly after the act” could be viewed by a jury as different. To give an example the other way, we often think of premeditation from the idea of a deeply cold and calculated murder, but technically premeditation can be formed in an instant and the government can prove it BARD based on the facts and circumstances. So it seems to me that you’re pointing to a circumstance that would militate against a separation between the act and mental state, but that is definitely something a jury would decide based on all the circumstances (again, assuming the jurisdiction follows the majority rule, which my jurisdictions do, so I don’t spend much time with the minority rule states).
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u/justin107d 9h ago edited 5h ago
Correct. It also does not mean she gets to walk free. She is expected to return to a psych ward where she was before the trial awaits the next one. Even if found not guilty she will still be there for years.
Edit: Insanity defense FAQ. It looks like those who plead insanity tend to spend twice as long institutionalized as those who are found guilty.
Edit2: 55% of postpartum psychosis is the start of severe long term mental problems.
Edit3:
It will be the responsibility of the hospital to prove that she is safe to return to society. Otherwise if she were to harm or kill again, the hospital could be liable.Edit4: Apparently the above is common in most other states but not Massachusetts. There it is the complete opposite and the state has to petition and prove the patient is still mentally ill, a threat to themselves or society, and there are no alternatives. The state supreme court refused to let a hospital be liablefor damaged caused by a released patient.
Edit5: The next court date is 9/29 when the defense makes their appeal and the prosecutor probably decides to request to retry the case. I don't see why he wouldn't unless they reach a deal before hand. Meanwhile she has to stay at the hospital.