Senate Bill 2188c1

    Florida Senate - 1999                           CS for SB 2188

    By the Committee on Criminal Justice and Senator Sebesta





    307-1942-99

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to the criminal defense of

  3         insanity; creating s. 775.027, F.S.; providing

  4         requirements for establishment of insanity

  5         defense; specifying conditions that do not

  6         constitute legal insanity; providing that the

  7         defendant has the burden of proving the

  8         insanity defense by clear and convincing

  9         evidence; providing an effective date.

10

11  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

12

13         Section 1.  Section 775.027, Florida Statutes, is

14  created to read:

15         775.027  Insanity defense.--

16         (1)  AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE.--All persons are presumed to

17  be sane. It is an affirmative defense to a criminal

18  prosecution that, at the time of the commission of the acts

19  constituting the offense, the defendant was insane. Insanity

20  is established when:

21         (a)  The defendant had a mental infirmity, disease, or

22  defect; and

23         (b)  Because of this condition, the defendant:

24         1.  Did not know what he or she was doing or its

25  consequences; or

26         2.  Although the defendant knew what he or she was

27  doing and its consequences, the defendant did not know that

28  what he or she was doing was wrong.

29

30  The term "mental infirmity, disease, or defect" as used in

31  this subsection does not include disorders that result from

                                  1

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 1999                           CS for SB 2188
    307-1942-99




  1  acute voluntary intoxication or withdrawal from alcohol or

  2  drugs, character defects, psychosexual disorders, or

  3  irresistible impulse. Conditions that do not constitute legal

  4  insanity include, but are not limited to, moral decadence; an

  5  abnormality that is manifested only by criminal conduct; or

  6  diminished capacity.

  7         (2)  BURDEN OF PROOF.--The defendant has the burden of

  8  proving the defense of insanity by clear and convincing

  9  evidence.

10         Section 2.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a

11  law.

12

13          STATEMENT OF SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES CONTAINED IN
                       COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
14                         Senate Bill 2188

15

16  -     Deletes the phrase, "momentary, temporary conditions
          arising from the pressure of the circumstances," from
17        the list of conditions that do not include legal
          insanity.
18
    -     Deletes the phrase, "depravity or passion growing out of
19        anger, jealousy, revenge, hatred, or other motives in a
          person who does not suffer from a mental infirmity,
20        disease or defect" from the list of conditions that do
          not include legal insanity.
21
    -     Deletes the phrase, "mental infirmity, disease, or
22        defect does not constitute a defense of insanity except
          as provided in this subsection," to correct a technical
23        deficiency.

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

                                  2