SENATE AGAIN PASSES "GUILTY BUT MENTALLY ILL" BILL Andrea Yates, Albert Fentress Cases Cited The New York State Senate today passed legislation (S.1822), sponsored by Senator Frank Padavan (R-C, Bellerose), that would allow juries to find defendants "guilty but mentally ill" in cases where they believe the defendant may have been mentally ill at the time of the crime, but should still be held responsible for his or her actions. "The Andrea Yates case in Texas highlights the need for another option for jurors other than simply guilty or innocent. Often, juries are reluctant to find defendants 'not guilty by reason of mental illness,' because they are afraid those defendants will not be held responsible and will go free after only a brief stay in a psychiatric hospital," said Senator Padavan. "These men and women are found guilty and serve time in prison without receiving the psychiatric treatment they so desperately need."A Texas jury last week found Andrea Yates guilty in the drowning deaths of her five children and recommended life in prison, rather than the death penalty. Jurors said they believed that Yates was mentally ill, but that she knew the difference between right and wrong."By creating a verdict of 'guilty but mentally ill,' a jury would be able to establish that a defendant's mental illness is great enough to require treatment, but not so great as to relieve him or her of guilt for a crime," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno. "This will keep dangerous criminals, like Albert Fentress, off the streets, while giving people with real mental defects the treatment they deserve."Albert Fentress, who spent the last 20 years in a psychiatric institution after torturing, sexually assaulting, killing and cannibalizing a Poughkeepsie teenager, recently petitioned the court for his freedom. The petition was only withdrawn by Fentress' lawyers last December when a man stepped forward and was prepared to testify that Fentress h...
