On December 2015 a man was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was charged with the first-degree murder of a deputy corrections director. He hit her 15 times with a wrench and taping a plastic bag over her head after he followed her into her apartment It took more than a year and two trials for the judge to declare not guilty based by reason of insanity (Zapotosky, 2015, para. 1, and 2). Both the prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that Seyoum killed deputy corrections director, however they disagreed whether or not he was capable to assist in his own trial. His lawyers argued that he could not tell right from wrong during the time of the attack ( Zapotosky, 2015, para. 3). In addition, in two previous trials jurors…show more content… Eventually the prosecution allowed Seyoum to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, which in turn would provide him with an intensive mental health treatment. A spokesperson of the attorney's office expressed her condolences to victims family and added regret that they were unable to reach a conviction in the manner prosecution had hoped ( Zapotosky, 2015, para. 4, and 6). As discussed in class, courts have a difficult time determining whether or not one can stand trial and what are the guidelines that should be followed in order to assure a just judicial process. No two cases are the same, nor are the circumstances surrounding the victim or the perpetrator. Psychiatrists are asked to evaluate the accused and give their own professional opinion which eventually determines one's outcome in court. One must be able to perform ten of the functions set forth in order to be competent to stand trial. There have been cases where defendants were so heavily medicated that their appearance in the court was completely changed, compared to their normal (sober) state. Hence, their perception was completely altered and gave the judge or the jury a false perception of one's ability to stand trial. Courts are faced with complicated task to assign one treatment or the
