Fitness to Stand Trial

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• Fitness to Stand Trial
• NCRMD
• not criminally responsible on account of mental
  disorder

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Fitness To Stand Trial and Criminal Responsibility

• Both fitness to stand trial and criminal
  responsibility are concerned with mental status
• criminal responsibility (CR) is concerned with
  mental status at the time of the crime
• fitness to stand trial is concerned with mental
  status at the time of the trial.
• Fitness assessment must precede judgment of
  criminal responsibility
• Fitness may often be remediated, CR (re the
  crime) is not

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Fitness to Stand Trial

• Unable on account of mental disorder to conduct
  a defense at any stage of the proceeding before a
  verdict is rendered or to instruct counsel to do
  so, and, in particular, unable on account of
  mental disorder to
• understand the nature or object of the
  proceedings,
• understand the possible consequences of the
  proceedings, or
• communicate with counsel
  C.C. s. 2

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Fitness Interview Test

• Individuals understanding of the nature and
  object of the proceedings
• Individuals understanding of the consequences of
  the proceedings
• Individuals ability to communicate with counsel

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Success of FIT-R

• Correctly identified 100 of mentally incompetent
  (unfit)
• but correctly rejected only 80 of those
  competent.
• Risk of false alarm (20)
• considered less important than risk of erroneous
  competent (fit) judgment.

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Disposition Order May Be

• Fit to Stand Trial
• proceed to trial
• Unfit to Stand Trial
• set aside trial procedure
• dismiss jury (if applicable)

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If Found Unfit

• reassess every 2 years
• May treat against will
• Why deficit
• Drugs
• Training to address the particular deficit(s)

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What is Insanity?

• Wild Beast (1724)
• Total defect of understanding (1847)
• M.Naghten Test (1843)
• Volition Test (1886)
• Mental Illness test (1870/1954)
• American Law Institute (1964)
• Insanity Defence Reform Act (1984)

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Wild Beast (1724)

• totally deprived of his understanding and
  memory and doth not know what he is doing, no
  more than an infant, than a brute, or a wild
  beast

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Total Defect of Understanding (1847)

• referred to a person having the level of
  understanding which is less than a normal
  14-year-old child

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MNaghten Test (1843)

• Presumed sane unless at the time of committing
  the offence the accused had
• a disease of the mind that caused the person to
• not understand the nature and quality of the act
  or
• not understand that the act was wrong

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Volition Test (1886)

• In Parsons v. State the Irresistible Impulse Test
  was added to the MNaghten test
• to include the availability of the insanity
  defence if the accused could not control his
  actions

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Mental Illness (1870/1954)

• the court expanded the definition of insanity to
  include any behaviour that was a product of
  mental illness
• adopted in 1954 by the United States Court of
  Appeals

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American Law Institute (1962)

• A person is not responsible for criminal conduct
  if at the time of such conduct as a result of
  mental disease or defect he lacks substantial
  capacity either to appreciate the criminality
  (wrongfulness) of his conduct or to conform his
  conduct to the requirements of law.
• The terms mental disease or defect do not
  include an abnormality manifested only by
  repeated criminal or otherwise anti-social
  conduct.

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Canada (1894)Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity
(NGRI)

• a person is insane when . . .
• Is in a state of natural imbecility
• or has disease of the mind to an extent that
  renders him
• incapable of appreciating the nature and quality
  of an act or omission or of knowing that an act
  or omission is wrong.

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Canada (1992) - NCRMDNot Criminally Responsible
on Account of Mental Disorder

• No person is criminally responsible for an act
  committed or an omission made while suffering
  from a mental disorder that rendered that person
  incapable of appreciating the nature and quality
  of an act or omission or of knowing that an act
  or omission is wrong.
• Criminal Code s. 16

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Considerations on a NCRMD Order

• Public Protection
• Reintegration of Accused into Society
• Accused Mental Condition

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The Disposition may be...

• Absolute discharge
• Conditional discharge
• Detention in hospital
• Treat against will?

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Who is Found NCRMD?

• White single male
• Late 20s early 30s
• A history of psychiatric hospitalizations
• Unemployed, w/o grade 12
• Psychotic
• Tends to have committed a non-violent crime

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Detention and Release

• Detention time is highly variable
• Recidivism rates for those found NGRI and those
  not is comparable

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