State v. Delibero

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O’HERN, J.

This criminal appeal concerns the relationship between a jury charge on diminished capacity and a charge on insanity. Diminished capacity describes a disease or defect of mind that may negate the mental state that is an element of the offense charged. The insanity defense exculpates an actor from guilt for conduct that would otherwise be criminal. The specific question is whether sequential instructions to the jury that the jury need not consider the evidence of defendant’s insanity unless it had first found defendant guilty of an offense…