Tighten scope of insanity defense

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The verdict in the first-degree murder trial of Shane Tilley last year showed that stricter limits are needed in Nebraska on the scope of the insanity defense.

The Legislature has an opportunity to do just that with LB794, a bill introduced by Sen. Amanda McGill of Lincoln that is part of Attorney General Jon Bruning’s legislative package.

Tilley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds that he could not distinguish right from wrong when he stabbed his high school friend Andy Lubben 24 times.

Tilley had swallowed 32 Coricidin pills, smoked marijuana and drunk alcohol before he stabbed Lubben to death on Super Bowl Sunday 2006. Tilley apparently stabbed Lubben at least once in his apartment, then followed him outside when he fled and continued to stab him.

Police found Tilley in his apartment naked, speaking incoherently and bleeding from self-inflicted wounds on his chest and neck.

Dr. Scott Moore, a forensic psychiatrist, said that during the incident Tilley was suffering from psychosis brought on by his use of the drugs. Moore said he felt Tilley did not have a major mental health disorder. “What I think is likely to happen is Mr. Tilley will not show any further sign of psychosis,” he said.

Lancaster County prosecutor Amy Jacobsen found herself in a disadvantageous position during the trial when she couldn’t find a definite basis in state law for the idea that voluntary ingestion of drugs negates the insanity defense.

“I don’t think the statute imagined this case,” she said. “I’m troubled by the state of the law. The Lubben family is troubled by the state of the law.”

Tilley is being held in the Lincoln Regional Center. His annual mental health review date is set for August. He can be released when a psychiatrist says he is no longer insane and a judge agrees.

There is considerable variance among states in laws on the insanity defense. Congress and state governments generally moved to tighten restrictions after John Hinckley Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity of shooting President Reagan in 1981.

When the insanity defense is used successfully, it usually attracts public attention. Actually, however, it is used in only 2 percent of criminal cases and is successful in only 10 percent of those cases, according to research done for the Hawaii Legislature.

But that’s no reason to avoid needed reform. The weakness in Nebraska criminal law that permitted the verdict in the Tilley case should not be allowed to continue. The changes proposed by McGill and Bruning are based on laws in effect in other states. Narrowing the scope of the insanity defense in Nebraska will serve the cause of justice.