6.6 Summary
- The presence of a mental disorder in a person charged with a criminal offense can impact that person’s course through the justice system in a number of ways.
- If a mental disorder impairs a person’s ability to participate in their own defense, or “aid and assist” their attorney, they may be deemed not competent to go forward. In this situation, the criminal case must pause.
- A person’s competence to proceed must be evaluated if there is a question about their ability to function and participate effectively in their case. Legal standards for competence and procedures for resolving competence issues vary by state and in the federal system but, at a minimum, they must comply with the Constitution, as interpreted by the courts.
- A person who is not competent may undergo treatment or education, and then their case may proceed. Restoration of competence may occur in a hospital, and it can involve numerous delays to the resolution of the criminal case.
- A mental disorder may, in very limited circumstances, provide a defense to criminal conduct: the insanity defense. This excuse defense appears in different versions in the states and the federal system, most using one of four basic formulations. Some states do not recognize this defense at all.
- The insanity defense is rarely asserted by defendants, and it is even more rarely successfully used. The defense is difficult to prove in that it is complex, it places a heavy burden on defendants, and it is socially unpopular. There are racial discrepancies in its use suggesting that, like most criminal justice outcomes, its use is impacted by systemic racism.
- Mental disorders can impact sentencing options, including by providing a mitigating circumstance for the sentencing judge to consider. The death penalty cannot be imposed on a person who is legally insane, though a person can be treated to become competent to be executed.
6.5.4 Key Terms
- Affirmative defense
- Aid and assist
- Competence evaluation
- Competency
- Due process
- Durham rule
- Dusky standard
- Excuse defense
- Guilty except for insanity (GEI)
- Insanity defense
- Irresistible impulse test
- Justification defense
- Legal standard
- Malingering
- Mitigation
- Model Penal Code
- M’Naghten Rule
- Non-qualifying mental disorder
- Qualifying mental disorder
- Restoration