As Americans speculate about why a young man in Colorado allegedly engaged in a nightmarish shooting rampage in a movie theater, lawyers for a convicted killer in Idaho are asking the Supreme Court to rule that states must allow defendants to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. The court should do so.

An insanity defense is rarely asserted, and the definition of legal insanity varies from state to state. Congress and several states have moved to narrow the insanity defense or shift the burden of proof on the question of sanity from the government to the defense, which undermines the principle that the prosecution must establish its case beyond a reasonable doubt. In four states, including Idaho, there is no insanity defense at all.

That could change if the Supreme Court agrees to consider an appeal by John Joseph Delling, who argues that some sort of insanity defense is required by the Constitution’s guarantee of due process of law.

We agree. Not every violent crime is the result of mental illness, but a jury should have the option — after hearing expert testimony from both sides — of deciding that a defendant is legally blameless, even if he must be confined for the protection of others.

 

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