People v. Escobar

OPINION OF THE COURT

Jerome L. Reinstein, J.

An apparently still unsettled question in this State is the standard of proof which should govern the prosecutor’s burden of establishing the mental condition of a criminal defendant found not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect under the recently enacted Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1980 (L 1980, ch 548). Mr. Bellacosa, in his Supplementary Practice Commentaries to amended CPL 330.20 (McKinney’s Cons Laws of NY, Book 11A, Pocket Part 1980-1981, CPL 330.20, p 16), presumes that such burden is “civil in nature and therefore…