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Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Indiana Decisions - Important Supreme Court ruling on insanity defense

Rita D. Thompson v. State of Indiana (3/23/04 IndSCt) [Criminal Law & Procedure]
Shepard, Chief Justice

Rita Thompson was convicted of residential entry. She admits committing the crime but argues that she presented uncontroverted expert evidence that she was legally insane at the time and therefore should have been found not guilty by reason of insanity. We conclude that, as with other evidence presented by either the State or the defense, a finder of fact is entitled to decide whether to credit the opinions of experts on insanity. Accordingly, we affirm the conviction. * * * We find that based on the evidence presented, the trier of fact could have found that Thompson was mentally ill but able to distinguish right from wrong.
Dickson, Boehm, and Rucker, JJ., concur.
Sullivan, J., concurs with separate opinion:
* * * There may be a temptation to read into today's opinion -- because we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals -- a suggestion that Barany has been expanded and that psychiatric testimony is even less weighty than before. I do not believe that to be the Court's intent. It seems to me that the law would require us, even under today's opinion, to set aside a conviction where (1) there was unanimous credible, expert testimony that a defendant was insane at the time of the crime at issue and (2) there was no other evidence of probative value from which a conflicting inference could be drawn. Said differently, there will be insufficient evidence to convict where (1) there is unanimous credible, expert testimony that a defendant is insane at the time of the crime at issue and (2) there is no other evidence of probative value from which a conflicting inference can be drawn. But we find that there was such evidence here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 23, 2004 02:35 PM
Posted to Indiana Decisions