Chapter 8: Mental State at the Time of the Offense (MSO)

8.01 Introduction to Mental State at the Time of the Offense

Core concept: MSO is the central focus, requiring reconstruction of the defendant's thoughts and behaviors surrounding the crime.
Guilt Determination Phase: Defenses are invoked during the phase where guilt is determined.
Defenses Covered:
- Insanity defense
- 'Automatism' defense
- 'Diminished capacity' (diminished responsibility)
- 'Character' defenses
- 'Affirmative' defenses (e.g., self-defense, provocation, duress, entrapment)
- Defenses related to psychoactive substance use
- Guilty but mentally ill verdict
Jurisdictional Variability:
- Not all states recognize every defense
- Diminished capacity recognized by fewer than frac{1}{2} of states
- 4 states lack an insanity defense
Varied Interpretations:
- Each defense can appear in different forms (e.g., at least 5 insanity tests exist)
Professional Understanding:
- Lawyers and mental health professionals must comprehend MSO doctrines to address appropriate legal questions
Chapter Aims:
- Outline majority and competing approaches for each defense
- Guide on clinical syndromes relevant to these defenses
- Suggest best practices for MSO evaluation and opinion formulation

Facts:
- Davidson, a longshoreman, consumed over a fifth of sloe gin
- Had histories of trances, voices, and visions
- Motives linked to concerns about sexual power loss/manhood
- Incident: following an argument with foreman, he retrieved a gun and shot him; recollection hazy; stated foreman was
  "looking at me, smiling" and thus he acted
Expert Testimony:
- Psychiatrist: 20 years of trances, voices, visions of devils; recognized as not real
- Described an imminent possibility of complete loss of sanity, fueling obsessive urge to kill
- Framed defense as diminished capacity (diminished responsibility)
Motivation & Impairment:
- Obsession with killing tied to crisis of sanity and threat to identity
- Possible interplay of mental illness and intoxication in cognitive/volitional impairment
Key Questions for Mental Health Professionals:
- Role of mental illness (trances, visions, obsession)
- Role of intoxication (heavy alcohol use)
- Nature of impairment (cognitive, volitional, or both)
- Additional information needed for assessment
- Plausibility of expert testimony
Key Questions for Lawyers:
- Which defense to assert: insanity or another defense?
Legal Outcome Note:
- Case stems from People v. Gorshen (1959), recognizing the relevance of expert testimony for a diminished capacity defense (better termed "diminished responsibility").

Facts:
- Drowned all five of her children, believing it would save them from eternal damnation by Satan
- Linked to postpartum depression/psychosis after a later pregnancy
- Influenced by itinerant preacher; non-adherence to antipsychotic/antidepressant meds; relapse after fifth child
- Crimes occurred during a brief period when her husband and mother were away
Key Terms & Important Points:
- Delusional beliefs: fear of eternal damnation and Satanic torment
- Religious influence from external preaching
- Psychiatric history: postpartum depression, suicide attempts, psychosis, hospitalizations
- Medication non-adherence as a precipitating factor
Key Questions for Mental Health Professionals:
- Nature of impairment: cognitive, volitional, or both?
- Causation: mental illness (postpartum psychosis, delusions)
- Mens rea: did she have a guilty mind for murder?
Key Questions for Lawyers:
- Type of defense to raise: insanity defense highly relevant
- How to respond to arguments about responsibility for having a fifth child or stopping medication
Legal Outcome Note:
- Initially convicted and sentenced to life
- Verdict overturned; later found not guilty by reason of insanity at a second trial

Facts:
- Sorenson killed her husband, J.D., after years of severe abuse (physical, psychological, forced prostitution)
- On the shooting day, after another beating, she took her daughter’s baby to her mother’s house, retrieved a gun, and shot J.D. while he slept
Key Questions for Mental Health Professionals:
- Description of mental state at time of offense (chronic trauma, fear, learned helplessness, possible dissociative states or extreme emotional disturbance)
- Use of Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS) as explanatory testimony
- Expertise to assist factfinder on psychological impact of prolonged abuse and perceived threat
Key Questions for Lawyers:
- Type of defense: self-defense (including imperfect self-defense) or BWS as part of self-defense
- Limitations of traditional self-defense doctrine in prolonged-abuse scenarios
Legal Outcome Note:
- Based on State v. Norman (1988), where the self-defense argument was ultimately unsuccessful on appeal
- Highlights challenges of applying standard self-defense in long-term abuse cases

Description: The insanity defense is the most frequently invoked MSO doctrine, grounded in the idea that some mentally disturbed offenders are so irrational or lacking in control that criminal liability is inappropriate
Core Premise: Criminal punishment assumes rational choice and free will; insanity challenges this for severely mentally disturbed individuals deemed not blameworthy
Rationale for Exculpation:
- Retribution and deterrence are undermined when the defendant lacked the capacity to understand or control actions
Practical/Policy Context:
- Highly controversial in theory and practice
- Public and legislative attempts to abolish it exist; only 4 states have eliminated it
Practical Considerations:
- Requires assessment of whether the defendant lacked the ability to know what they were doing or to restrain themselves
- Involves psychiatric evaluation and expert testimony to establish MSO at the time of the offense
Note on Variability:
- Various jurisdictions use different insanity standards/tests (e.g., M’Naghten, Irresistible Impulse, Durham, Model Penal Code, etc.)