Paving the way for good television court drama.
It was on this day, 22 years ago, that the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling
on Jones vs. U.S. The court was asked to rule on the petition of someone acquitted
by means of an insanity plea. The petitioner had been committed to a mental hospital
until the mandatory 50 day judicial hearing, and then returned to the hospital.
He then spent an entire year in that hospital and petitioned again for release,
claiming that his stay in the hospital was longer than the maximum prison sentence
he might have received had he been found guilty (or pleaded guilty) to the crime
for which he was tried. The court ruled (five to four) that hospitalization for
insanity for the maximum period of possible incarceration is not, in and of itself,
justification for immediate release.
The
court decision itself makes fascinating reading (at least for someone who
doesn't read these very often), and rather convincing cases can be made for both
sides. (Actually, the dissenting opinion isn't one, but two - both good reads.)
One of the dissenting opinions stresses that hospitalization in a mental hospital
shouldn't be used as punishment for getting off on an insanity plea. But even
so, it's hard not to see how it wouldn't be - especially on one of the many television
court dramas that specialize in catchy endings (don't they all?). I enjoy catching
these late at night, and I can't seem to recall that Jones vs. U.S. has been used
on any of the shows I've seen, though I can certainly imagine the defense lawyers,
convinced that their client is actually guilty, hinting to the judge or to the
prosecution that if the defense uses an insanity defense, there's still a chance
of putting their acquitted client away in a hospital for a lengthy period of time.
But is a Supreme Court decision, important as it may be, a valid item for a Boidem
date tie-in? Legal issues have appeared in these tie-ins before - the
twinkie defense, for instance - but even that was a bit off topic. Perhaps
the best excuse (defense?) I can find is to claim that television courtroom dramas
have a way of keeping me from doing this late-night writing, so that when I watch
how a defense lawyer succeeds in getting his or her client acquitted (after which
the prosecution turns the tables on them and, let's say, gets the defendant hospitalized
in a mental institution) I'm also thinking of the fact that I really should be
writing a Boidem column.
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