Mental Health in the Criminal Justice System: What's the Difference Between Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity and Incompetent to Stand Trial?

Murder Sheet

MurderSheet

True Crime, Murder, Unsolved Case, Killing, Murderer, Cold Case

3.8 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We've all heard about the Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity — or NGRI — defense that is sometimes used in court- but what exactly does it mean? How common is this defense used? Would it be easy for a defendant to successfully fake a mental illness in order to employ this defense?

To get answers, we spoke with someone who works in the field. We verified her experience but because she is still active in this area, she asked that we not use her name or identifying information.

Send tips to [email protected].

The Murder Sheet is a production of Mystery Sheet LLC.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You know by now that we're all about the journey, June's journey that is.
0:05.0	Like, I feel this game was made for us specifically.
0:08.0	It's the closest I've come to feeling like I've been dropped in the middle of a mystery novel set in the 1920s.
0:14.0	That's because you get to play as June.
0:17.0	A globetradding flapper slash amateur sleuth who lives to solve mysteries.
0:23.0	You get to visit all sorts of fascinating places from Paris to Cuba.
0:27.0	You beat levels by identifying hidden objects in the scene.
0:31.0	And we've found that the more we play, the sharper our observational skills become.
0:36.0	The game is delightful and a wonderful way to relax.
0:40.0	I'll often pull my phone out and play it when I've got a free moment.
0:44.0	Like I'm on hold with an archive or I'm waiting for a courthouse to open up in the morning.
0:48.0	I'm currently on chapter 16, meaning I'm searching for the son of June's housekeeper,
0:55.0	who's on the run from New Orleans gamblers and the police.
0:59.0	It's a wild time.
1:01.0	We know our audiences filled with folks who love a good mystery.
1:05.0	Now is your chance to try your hand at being a sleuth yourself.
1:09.0	Discover your inner detective when you download June's journey for free today on iOS and Android.
1:17.0	Content warning, this episode contains discussion of mental health issues, violence and murder.
1:25.0	The Richard Allen case has quite a few of us thinking about how a defendant's mental health can affect his ultimate faith in the justice system.
1:34.0	What does it take, for instance, for a defendant to successfully plead not guilty by reason of insanity or in GRI?
1:42.0	What tests or evaluations are performed to ensure that the defendant is truly mentally ill and not just faking it in hopes of avoiding consequences for his crime?
1:53.0	Beyond in GRI, how do courts determine if someone is even mentally competent to stand trial at all?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from MurderSheet, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of MurderSheet and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.