Commonwealth v. Biancardi

In Commonwealth v. Mutina, 366 Mass. 810 (1975), this court announced that thereafter “where the defense of insanity [lack of criminal responsibility] is fairly raised, the defendant, on his timely request, is entitled to an *252instruction regarding the consequences of a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.” Id. at 823 n.12. In this case, there was evidence of the defendant’s lack of criminal responsibility, and the defendant made a timely request for an instruction concerning the consequences of a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. The judge, however, declined to give the…