Page 2 - Insanity Case News Today

Reporter: daniel willyam, as was his right, declined to testify when he went on trial for killing shelley nance. so he did not himself point at nathan and accuse him of committing the murder. but of course he didnt have to. his attorney did it for him. it was not a surprise to prosecutor dewey mitchell. >> they said it couldve been nathan, and it couldve been a random person, and that by the time the states done with its case, youre not gonna be able to know who did this crime. they just dont ha...

Courtroom, please. >> a judge sentenced james helms for the 2012 colorado murder shooting. >> they found tsarnaev guilty of all federal counts. >> the marathon bomber got a death sentence and the insanity case failed for sending chris kyle in texas. >> i dont know who is sane in the world right now. >> we find the defendant eddy ray route guilty. >> they charged bowe bergdahl for desertion for his 2009 disappearance and the taliban capturing him in afghanistan. the weather went to extremes in 20...

Holmes is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. and that defense shifting the burden to prosecutors. johna is a former prosecutor and thank you both for joining us. >> i will begin with you, jana. why is this the burden of the prosecutors? >> in a minority of the states the burden in an insanity case shifts to the prosecutor not to prove that the defendant is guilty beyond a doubt but if he is insane. >> there is a finding he is insane. and the burden shifts to the prosecutors to prove othe...

Diagnosis, a psychiatric diagnosis of a defendant before they decide a criminal case, a huge responsibility we put on juries in america. >> was it enough because of the fairness under law, thats justice, right? we all know that as lawyers and you know it now from watching all of these things take on. the legal definition was narrow do you know right from wrong. was this guy done when he kept saying it was wrong, it was wrong. he ate a burrito, he ran afterwards he took a cell phone. was it over?...

In his entire career occurred in an insanity case. you dont know what the jurors will do and dont understand a lot of times the instructions and judging how insane he looks to be and so its a risky thing. in this case youve got two local hometown heroes, a lot of evidence of what were indicating that he knew what he did was wrong. he stole kyles car after shooting the truck and fled. why would you flee if you think you didnt do something wrong? he said he was sorry and a number of things would i...

Paranoid was previewed by his attorney in opening statements. >> what he said was that he had killed them before they could kill him. >> reporter: three, maybe four times, the ranger asks the question that matters most in an insanity case. each time he gets the same answer. you know what you did today is wrong, right? you understand that? yes, sir, replies routh over and over. in another acknowledgment of his guilt, routh apologizes to the victims families saying im so sorry for what i have done...

Defendant can say, he doesnt have to prove everything, he can say, maybe i wasnt that crazy, maybe i know about my actions, but i have this irresistible impulse also. its making a prosecutions job more difficult that. i have to prove his sanity beyond a reasonable doubt with all three of these qualification. >> they may be making it difficult, but, lisa bloom, i have seen you cover enough cases to know it is very, very difficult for the defense to prevail. as the percentage that is miniscule of ...

Itself. what the judge did yesterday -- this is the same judge presiding at the trial of mr. holmes -- was to say i dont know if this book, this notebook that the defendant wrote and gave to his treating psychiatrist, an employee of the state of colorado, is going to be admissible in evidence in the case against him. if its not, then this big dispute about how the reporter, how jana learned about it is irrelevant and im goes to dismiss the case against her, and shes not going to go to jail. >>gr...