State v. McLaughlin

OPINION

ANDERSON, PAUL H„ Justice.

Fifteen-year-old John Jason McLaughlin was tried as an adult and convicted for the murders of two fellow students whom McLaughlin shot at Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota. After a bifurcated trial at which six expert witnesses testified regarding McLaughlin’s mental health, the Stearns County District Court declined to excuse McLaughlin from criminal liability. The court found that McLaughlin knew it was morally wrong to shoot the victims and concluded that McLaughlin therefore failed to establish a mental illness defense under the M’Naghten rule…