Holding Court: Crazy?

Holding Court is a series by retired Rye City Court Judge Joe Latwin. Latwin retired from the court in December 2022 after thirteen years of service to the City.

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By Joe Latwin

You don’t have to be crazy, but . . . .

As one might suspect, quite a number of people that get arrested and come before the Court exhibit indicia of being crazy.

Since many crimes require that a defendant had some knowledge or intent when committing the crime, it is a defense against criminal charges that a defendant was incapable of understanding what he or she was doing, or in determining right from wrong as they could not have the required mental states. This rule traces back to the Code of Hammurabi of Babylon. In 1843, Daniel M’Naghten shot Edward Drummond after mistakenly identifying him as the British Prime Minister Robert Peel, who M’Naghten intended to shoot. M’Naghten was charged and convicted of murdering Drummond. M’Naghten. The House of Lords set down principles (the “M’Naghten Rules”) that when met, the accused may be adjudged “not guilty by reason of insanity” or “guilty but insane” and the sentence may be a period of treatment in a secure hospital facility. Mental disorder, mental illness and being incapable of distinguishing right from wrong were bases for being found to be legally insane.

In 1859, in Daniel Sickles, then a Congressman, shot and killed Philip Barton Key II, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and the son of Francis Scott Key, of National Anthem fame after Sickles discovered that Philip Key was having an affair with his wife. Sickles pled not guilty but reason of temporary insanity having been driven insane by his wife’s infidelity. Sickles was acquitted. This however, did not stop him from becoming a Major General in the Union Army and a Gettysburg, advancing off the Union line in violation of the orders of General Meade towards the Peach Orchard and creating a gap in the Union line. While this action created a grave risk to the Union Army, it blunted the Confederate advance. Sickles paid the price for his action when a cannon ball hit his leg that was later amputated. As evidence that there was something off about Sickles, he preserved the bones from his amputated leg and donated them to the museum in a small coffin-shaped box to the Army Medical Museum and for years thereafter, Sickles visited his limb on the anniversary of its amputation.

In 1982, John Hinckley was acquitted of the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan on the basis of an insanity defense. After this, Congress passed the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 and many states shifted the burden of proof from the prosecutor to the defense, requiring defense attorneys to show by clear and convincing evidence or by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant was insane. Hinckley was confined in a mental hospital in Washington until his release in 2016. Apparently, the death of Reagan and Jodie Foster’s 2014, marriage to actress and photographer Alexandra Hedison ended Hinckley’s compulsions.

New York’s rules are set forth in Article 730 of the Criminal Procedure Law. After a defendant is arraigned and before the imposition of sentence, the court in a criminal action must issue an order of examination when it is of the opinion that the defendant may as a result of mental disease or defect lacks capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his own defense. If the defendant is in custody, upon receipt of an examination order, the director of the jail must designate two qualified psychiatric examiners to examine the defendant to determine if he is an incapacitated person. If the Court is satisfied that the defendant is an incapacitated person, it must issue an order of observation committing him or her to the custody of the commissioner of mental health or the state commissioner of the office for people with developmental disabilities for care and treatment in an appropriate institution for a period not to exceed ninety days (for misdemeanors) or one year (for indicted felonies) and it must dismiss the accusatory instrument.