When I teach the insanity defense in Criminal Law, I often talk about the strategic component of the defense. Before any (good) attorney raises this claim, she has to consider whether an insanity finding will actually be better or worse for her client. The insanity defense is most useful when a defendant is facing serious jail time. On less serious offenses, it's totally normal for a defendant found NGRI to spend more time in the hospital then he would have served in jail after conviction.
In this case, a 38 year old Colorado woman – Tanya Martin – was convicted of animal cruelty; she'd set her dog on fire. She apparently has a long history of mental illness. This act occurred when she'd gone off her medication. The physicians at the Colorado Mental Health Institute concluded that she was mentally ill at the time of the fire and the DA conceded that "this is a tragic criminal act that has its roots in mental illness." As part of a plea deal, she got 10 years of probation and 45 days in jail. (I wonder if she's getting credit for time spent at the mental hospital.)
This looks like a great example of a case where a defense attorney might push a client to plead guilty notwithstanding the fact the attorney is convinced that her client was not, in fact, legally culpable for the offense. These cases get pretty hairy when the defendant remains substantially mentally ill – and the lawyer is put in the position of trying to convince a mentally ill person, with a NGRI defense, to engage in the Kabuki performance of a voluntary, knowing and intentional admission of guilt.
Defense lawyers often have to face ethical quandries that look very different than the casebooks suggest. How many times must a public defender push an almost-certainly-innocent client to plead guilty? In my experience, plenty. You might say that this pressure is the same as suborning perjury. The defendant lies when he admits guilt. But as with the Martin case here, sometimes this may be the best outcome for the client.
Two thoughts on this. First, how is this different from any plea deal when a person admits to one thing that they maybe do not believe they did to avoid the risk of a higher charge? Particularly when the person knows they committed the higher charge, but is pleading to a lesser charge they did not committ. In that situation should any defense attorney counsel their client to not accept the plea deal to the lesser charge.
Second, perhaps some frustration in this question, but why do these questions always focus on the defense attorney? I frequently read and hear about the challenges facing a defense attorney only. The other side has a number of dilemmas in this situation as well. When an insane person committs a crime, the prosecutor still has to answer to the victims and to society. In this case it looks like the prosecutor got a satisfactory sentence, but what of cases where the prosecutor believes the person to be insane, but cannot fold b/c of the seriousness of the case? Or, a case that is not so serious, but still cannot be ignored.
Two thoughts on this. First, how is this different from any plea deal when a person admits to one thing that they maybe do not believe they did to avoid the risk of a higher charge? Particularly when the person knows they committed the higher charge, but is pleading to a lesser charge they did not committ. In that situation should any defense attorney counsel their client to not accept the plea deal to the lesser charge.
These cases get pretty hairy when the defendant remains substantially mentally ill – and the lawyer is put in the position of trying to convince a mentally ill person, with a NGRI defense, to engage in the Kabuki performance of a voluntary, knowing and intentional admission of guilt.
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