State v. Kolisnitschenko

At 1:40 a.m., November 11, 1974, Michael Kolisnitsehenko broke into the home of a neighbor, Palma Griffiths, and killed her by stabbing her seventeen times. In the first part of his bifurcated trial, he was found guilty of murder. In the second part, the jury rejected Kolisnitschenko’s defense that he was not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. The jury reached that conclusion despite the testimony of Dr. Crowley, a psychiatrist, and Dr. Lie- done, a clinical psychologist, that at the time of the murder Kolisnitschenko was psychotic. The two doctors concluded that because of his…