Vermont lawmakers are poised to propose legislation that would lengthen the time alleged murderers who are found not guilty due to insanity must remain in the custody of the state.
Under current law, those are found not guilty of murder or attempted murder because they were insane at the time of the crime can be released as soon as 90 days later. Democratic lawmakers are crafting legislation that would extend that time to three years.
Insanity pleas have been used in several recent high profile murder and attempted murder cases. State officials have taken conflicting — and sometimes controversial — approaches to handling those cases.
“If the facts prove that the person committed that crime and they’re found innocent by reason of insanity, then I think the government has a certain responsibility to protect the public as well as it can to ensure that they don’t commit other crimes,” Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Friday.
In June, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George announced she was dropping charges in two separate murder cases and one attempted murder case because she didn’t have enough evidence to oppose insanity defenses.
The defendants submitted opinions from psychiatrists who determined that they were insane at the time of the crime. George said the state also reviewed evidence showing the defendants had long histories of major mental illness diagnoses and previous psychiatric hospitalizations.
After George dropped the charges, she faced criticism from Gov. Phil Scott, who asked Attorney General T.J. Donovan to review the cases. Donovan took the rare step of refiling charges in one of the cases that the state’s attorney had dropped.
In September, Donovan once again charged Aita Gurung, who is accused of killing his wife with a meat cleaver in Burlington in 2017, with murder and attempted murder.
Legislators said another recent case, involving a man who was found not guilty of killing his girlfriend in Springfield in 2017 by reason of insanity, also spurred them to update laws related to insanity cases.
Ten months ago, Windsor Superior Court Judge Timothy Tomasi ruled that alleged killer, Arnaldo Cruz, should remain in Department of Mental Health custody for up to 90 days, according to the Valley News.
Cruz was released earlier this year, but this month, was arrested and charged for a separate crime — allegedly threatening to kill a man with a knife a few weeks before the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend.
The Valley News reported that prosecutors didn’t know Cruz had been released by the state until his arrest.
Part of the legislation proposed by Sears and other lawmakers would make it a requirement for the Department of Mental Health to notify state’s attorneys and crime victims before a person found not guilty by insanity is released.
It would also require the department to allow state’s attorneys and crime victims to speak at the court hearing that determines whether the person can be released to the public, or poses continued danger to themselves or others.
“It concerns me that people who have been proven to have committed these crimes then are let out without any public notice, without any public input, particularly the victims, within … as little as 90 days,” Sears said.
Windsor County State’s Attorney David Cahill championed the legislation before the Joint Justice Oversight Committee Friday.
“What we need to do is reimagine the law to do a better job protecting ordinary Vermonters who don’t want to get shot, stabbed or bludgeoned,” he said. “That’s really what it comes down to.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont says it will be following the legislation when it is proposed in January, to make sure it takes due process and constitutional rights into account.
“Any time we are changing the laws around how we confine folks involuntarily, that raises concerns around due process,” said Falko Schilling, the Vermont ACLU’s advocacy director.
