The AP (2/25) reports the case of Eddie Ray Routh, the former Marine convicted of killing “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle and another man, “illustrates the difficulty of succeeding with” mental illness defenses. One factor is that jurors don’t know that a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity means the defendant will be sent to a mental hospital for life, unless “the state could no longer establish that he had a severe mental illness and was likely to harm another person if he didn’t receive inpatient treatment.”
Related Links:
— “Experts: Insanity case as in ‘American Sniper’ hard to win,” Associated Press, Washington Post, February 25, 2015.