VanVoorhis v. State

I concur with some reluctance, just as the trial judge reached a verdict with reservation. The court found that “the defendant is not relieved from responsibility despite the fact that she’s obviously severely mentally ill. So my verdict [sic] is that she’s guilty but mentally ill.” Such a finding is authorized, if evidentially warranted, by OCGA § 17-7-131 (b) (1) (D) and (2) and (c) (2).1 The court later explained: “If our law in Georgia were different on the subject of mental illness, then my verdict would have been different.” The court *751accepted as fact that the defendant suffered from…