Legal briefs
Crime
In 2012, Tyree Smith picked up a homeless man in Bridgeport, Connecticut, hacked him to death with a hatchet, ate his brain and eyes, then washed it all down with some sake. Smith was arrested, went to trial in 2013, and was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Under Connecticut law, he was committed to a psychiatric hospital for sixty years.
Last week, however, the state’s Psychiatric Security Review Board granted Smith conditional release. He is still committed to the state mental health system for the 60 year term but is being moved to what they call community supervision. The Board’s psychiatrist testified at the release hearing that Smith was completely free of schizophrenia, and that he would be safe in the community because he would continue to receive treatment.
Following the announcement of the release decision, Connecticut lawmakers have responded to public outcry. State Senators called the decision “mind-boggling” and proposed legislation that would direct the psychiatry board to make “the protection of society its primary concern and the well-being of the acquittee its secondary concern when evaluating for discharge, conditional release or confinement.” You can read more here.
More crime
In related news, this week, Vivek Ramaswamy announced his candidacy for Governor of Ohio. Among the campaign promises he made in the announcement is to bring back mental health institutions. In discussing the proposal, Vivek acknowledged that mistakes were made with mental hospitals in the past but argued that the institutions should be fixed rather than abandoned. He noted that, “Our jails cannot be the first line of psychiatric care in this state.” He pointed out that violent crime has been on the rise, in part, because of the movement to leave dangerously mentally ill people on the street. See above. If Vivek can pull this off in Ohio, maybe we’ll copy the plan in Indiana. You can watch Vivek’s remarks here.
Still more crime
You know what your court is missing? Sesame Street, apparently. I know you may be busy putting criminals in jail and supervising complex civil litigation, but have you considered the ways Muppets could help?
All Rise, formerly known as the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, is currently offering training and technical assistance to help problem-solving courts integrate the Sesame Street in Communities Project into their programs. It is not entirely clear to me what the Sesame Street in Communities Project is, but All Rise does have pictures of Elmo and Cookie Monster on its website alongside the solicitation. You can read some vague descriptions and “findings” about the project here if you feel like that would be a good use of your time.
I have been documenting in this column what I view as the infantilization of the court system. You may recall I have written about serenity rooms, puppy pens and coloring books. This is another example. I don’t think people want to see Muppets when they come to court. I think people expect court to be a serious place where serious issues are addressed. Maybe that’s just me, though.
Free speech
In much of Europe, you can be fined or even go to jail for what they consider offensive speech. For instance, a guy in Germany was arrested for calling a German politician a “professional idiot.” In Italy, a rock star has been criminally charged for calling the Prime Minister a fascist at a concert. In the UK, a government agency called the Advertising Standards Authority, barred comedian, Fern Brady, from promoting an appearance with a poster depicting her as the Virgin Mary because it may offend Christians.
The CBS show, 60 Minutes, recently aired a segment featuring German prosecutors discussing their criminal speech laws. The show’s anchor asked the German prosecutors, “Is it a crime to insult somebody in public?” “Yes”, they said. And a greater offense to do so on the internet because, “it stays there.” (And just so you know, I am not promoting 60 Minutes. They censor with the best of them, and, if you watch the segment, the host seemed envious of Germany’s abilities).
Vice President, J.D. Vance, recently spoke at Munich Security Conference where he criticized Europe’s approach to free speech. Vance said that “In Britain, and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.” He called on Europeans to not be afraid of their citizens speaking their minds. He appealed to what was once the shared value of free speech between Europe and America. He ended by saying that, “Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There is no room for firewalls. You either uphold the principle or you don’t.” You can read his remarks here.
Other
Last week, the American Bar Association (ABA) suspended its Law School Accreditation Standards Rule 206, which is the requirement that law schools focus on DEI. You can read about that here. As I have been writing about in this column, DEI is being removed from more and more entities. Will the Indiana Supreme Court shutter their DEI division?
More other
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