GMI verdict? As we say with the NGI verdict, many extremely dangerous mentally ill criminals were simply released onto the streets where they committed the same crimes. Does the GMI verdict solve this problem? We have some "natural experiments" on this questio rising from some court decisions. A 1971 decision forced to reassessment of 586 inmates of Pennsylvania's Fairview State Hospital for the Criminaly Insane who were placed there under the GMI verdict. Over two-thirds were eventually released. Over the next four years, 27 percent were rearrested. Eleven percent were rearrested for violent crime. Including some others who were rehospitalized for a violent act, a total of 14.5 percent of those released proved to be dangerous. ABOLISH THE INSANITY DEFENSEAbolishing the insanity defense is easier said than done for the simple reason that the mens rea requirement remains a fundamental legal principle. The proposal that "mental condition shall not be a defense to any charge of criminal conduct" could be interpreted in one of two ways. The broader interpretation would mean that absolutly no aspect of mental condition could be taken into account. In effect, this interpretation would abolish the mens rea requirement altogether. The prosecution would not have to prove anything about the accused's mental state. This is unneccessarry. For one thing, it would wipe out the distintions that separarte first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and manslaughter. It is doubtful that anyone againt the insanity defense would choose to take this approach. So sweeping, in fact, would be it's effect, that it would probably be declared unconstitutuional. A more limited reading of the wording "mental condition shall not be a defense to any charge of criminal conduct" would mean that an affermative plea of "not guilty by reason of insanity" could not be raised. The crucial distinction here is drawn between affermative and ordinary defenses. An ordinary defen...
