Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153:1464-1468
Copyright © 1996 by American Psychiatric Association
Insanity defense pleas in Baltimore City: an analysis of outcome
JS Janofsky, MH Dunn, EJ Roskes, JK Briskin and MS Rudolph
Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA.
OBJECTIVE: The authors studied all defendants in Baltimore City's circuit
and district courts who pleaded not criminally responsible, Maryland's
version of the not guilty by reason of insanity plea, during a 1-year
period. The study was designed to compare the perception that the insanity
plea is misused to actual outcome data. METHOD: The cohort of defendants
who pleaded not criminally responsible in both the circuit and district
courts during calendar year 1991 was identified. Data on demographic
characteristics, crimes committed, diagnoses, and psychiatrists' opinions
on criminal responsibility were collected. Trial outcome data were obtained
through a search of the circuit and district court computer systems.
RESULTS: Of the 60,432 indictments filed in the two courts, 190 defendants
(0.31 per 100 indictments) entered a plea of not criminally responsible.
All but eight defendants (0.013 per 100 indictments) dropped this plea
before trial. For these eight cases, both the state and the defense agreed
that the defendant should be found not criminally responsible, and the plea
was uncontested at trial. The remaining defendants had their charges
dropped before trial, remained not competent to stand trial at the time of
the study, or withdrew their pleas of not criminally responsible before
trial. CONCLUSIONS: There were no trials that contested the plea of not
criminally responsible. The state and defense agreed with each other for
all of the defendants who actually retained the plea at trial. The
perception that the insanity defense is overused and misused is not borne
out by data.
