OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma prosecutor wants to create a new option for verdicts in criminal cases where the defendant claims he was insane when the crime was committed.
State law permits criminal defendants who claim they are not responsible for their actions due to a psychiatric illness or mental disability to be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater says that outcome does not hold a defendant accountable.
Prater says an alternate verdict of guilty but insane would hold a defendant accountable for a crime but not make him criminally responsible. A guilty-but-insane defendant would receive mandatory treatment at a state mental health facility, just like those currently found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Prater says similar ideas have been adopted in other states.