So basically, he walked? Is that hgow it is these days? I thought you still had to serve time in a Psychiatric hospital NOT get off and just walk away! That just was not explained and it sure doesn't make sense! Would that work today?
shareThis was over 50 years ago, quite a bit has changed since then. We wish it was as easy as that to just walk away but if you plead insanity then yes you usually do wind up in the booby hatch today.
share"Not guilty by reason of insanity" means just that. Not guilty. It is true that they are then taken for evaluation and may be confined in treatment (not as punishment) until found to be recovered. However, and this surprised me when I looked it up, there is an exemption for the specific case of temporary insanity. These just walk, the idea being that whatever came over them is gone by the very definition of the term. Temporary insanity was a more common defense in the 40s and 50s than in more recent times, but it still exists.
share"We wish it was as easy as that to just walk away"
Interesting comment. Why do you wish it was "as easy as that to just walk away" from killing someone?
It was made more clear in the book. When a person is found not guilty by temporary insanity, they have to be put away until pronounced sane. Both pyschiatrists associated with the trial pronounced Manion sane, so the judge cut him loose. Remember Anatomy was written by a lawyer-he knew the law from both sides of the table and how it was applied, and in this case, I believe the correct thing was to let Manion walk. The jury found him not guilty and the shrinks found him sane. On what basis could he be locked up?
http://thinkingoutloud-descartes.blogspot.com/
The film was based on a real murder, and the book written by he real defense attorney. An article about the real case says: "Immediately after the acquittal, Peterson was ordered to undergo psychiatric examinations to see if he might still have a condition that merited confinement in a hospital for the criminally insane. It was found that he had regained his faculties and he was released."
shareIt was not your general "insanity" defense it was a specific class, the "irresistible impulse" defense. The author, John D. Voelker (who actually was a County Prosecutor in Michigan before his appointment to the Michigan Supreme Court) cites the case in the book (I recall that it was in the Atlantic 2nd Reporter) and, Preminger kept that in the movie with the case being found by Arthur O'Connell's character.
If anybody wants the case law, here you go: http://www.law.cornell.edu/background/insane/insanity.html
I agree, I think it is a cop-out. Even Biegler suggests it to Manion. What a slimebag lawyer. The whole movie overlooks the fact that Manion committed perjury. Insanity pleas are rare, but it's a scary thought that a proven violent and unpredictable man could walk free,.
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while I have no doubts about the 'letter of the law' as cited by other posters...
the 'immediate release' could also be a simple Hollywood simplification... The movie is about the Trial... once the Verdict comes down the trial was over and the central Mystery was solved... it's the same reason why so many cop shows role credits after an Arrest... It leaves the audience with a Win without bogging the story down with excess information
-- think about it... had they said: He's Innocent, BUT now he has to sit in the rubber room and Hug himself in backwards coat with extra long sleeves the average audience at the time, without 25 years of Law and Order Reruns on TV every week. would have been "wait if he's innocent why is he still being taken away?"
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