Sunday, May 02, 1999
Insanity to be hard defense for trash-can mom
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — When Deborah Mackey goes on trial Monday, mental health experts say she may have a tough time convincing a judge she was insane when she abandoned her newborn daughter in a trash bin.
Even Ms. Mackey's own lawyer knows the job ahead won't be an easy one.
“People, when they think insanity, they think of people hearing voices and having psychotic delusions ... that they hallucinate,” defense lawyer Donald Oda III said.
“Those kinds of insanity defenses — people can understand much more than the crux of this case, which is not, "The dog told me to do it.'”
Ms. Mackey, 39, of Liberty Township in Butler County, doesn't dispute that she abandoned her baby in the trash can at Ample Industries in Franklin on Dec. 14.
But she does claim inno cence, saying she was mentally ill at the time.
Ms. Mackey has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of attempted murder, attempted involuntary manslaughter and child endangering.
The child, Holly Ann Mackey, survived after being found by a cleaning woman at the factory. Suffering from a birth defect unrelated to her birth six weeks early or her abandonment, she is expected to live about two years. Holly Ann resides with her father.
Mr. Oda has opted for a trial before the judge instead
of a jury, in an effort to keep the verdict from being swayed by emotion.
The trial is expected to last two days before Judge P. Daniel Fedders in Warren County Common Pleas Court.
To be successful in her defense, Ms. Mackey must convince Judge Fedders she was suffering from a mental disease or defect that kept her from knowing what she did was wrong or from understanding the consequences.
Mr. Oda said he will attempt to show that Ms. Mackey was so mentally incapacitated, she did not know what she was doing.
“I wish this lady luck. I doubt it will fly,” said Katie Scheflen, a staff attorney with the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Arlington, Va.
Statistics support her opinion.
A 1991 study of eight states, including Ohio, showed that of 967,209 criminal cases, only 1 percent raised the insanity defense. Of those cases, 26 percent of the insanity pleas were successful, the study by Policy Research Associates in Delmar, N.Y. showed.
“The public thinks (the insanity defense) is used all the time, and this is the way for people to get away with things,” Ms. Scheflen said.
There's also public consensus that defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity avoid incarceration. But that's rarely the case, she said.
“Almost all of them are committed to forensic institutions, and a lot of them are almost always committed longer than what they would have served if they were found guilty of the crime,” Ms. Scheflen said.
When a suspect is found insane, a judge decides whether to commit the defendant to an institution for treatment.
“When you have a person who is by legal definition insane, the punishment element makes no sense,” Mr. Oda said.
“It's like punishing an infant for crying. They don't know it's the middle of the night and people are sleeping. They just cry because that's what babies do.”
Mr. Oda said he will call one, possibly two, therapists to support the insanity defense. Bobbi Hopes, a psychologist who evaluated Ms. Mackey for the prosecution, definitely will take the stand for the defense, he said.
An earlier report by Ms. Hopes supported the contention that Ms. Mackey was mentally impaired at the time of the birth. That prompted prosecutors to seek the opinion of a third psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas Martin of Dayton, Ohio.
Mr. Oda said he also plans to call Ms. Mackey's sister and mother to testify, but was unsure whether he would call Ms. Mackey to the stand.
To prove its case, the prosecution has subpoenaed at least 18 witnesses, including police officers, employees at Ample, social workers, medical professionals and Dr. Martin.
“We will attempt to prove that at the time of the incident she knew the difference between right and wrong and was not suffering from any mental disease,” Warren County Prosecutor Tim Oliver said.
The testimony of therapists is key to the trial on both sides of the issue, Mr. Oda said.
“The insanity case rises and falls on expert testimony,” he said.
Successful insanity pleas in Tristate
Cincinnati vs. Flynt: The Sequel
Obscenity trials highly subjective
Video technology brought porn home
The players in Flynt trial
Would city get mayor or monster?
A couple of time-tested reasons to vote
5 good reasons for Charter reform
Issue 4 requires more than 30-second attention span
Insanity to be hard defense for trash-can mom
West-bound commuters should seek new route
4,000 gather for Troutman funeral
Boone to use phone alerts
Montgomery meeting to update on tornado cleanup
Tornado victims robbed of salvaged possessions
Say so long to Stenger's
GET TO IT
How to fell 14-story building unclear, as is site's future
No Namers make best of life in no-man land
'Noah' goes overboard
Portman behind naming CIA headquarters after Bush
Portman, Chabot firm in opposition to war
Taking bows on Broadway
What goes down at the Parktown?
Willis Music celebrates 100 years of service
Wish list for CSO maestro
Dems tired of losing
A school made from scratch
Butler shows its history
Few injuries on stadium site
Investigation continues of ex-property value administrator
Ky. board to consider park grant
Ky. can't keep public defenders
Prisons now help mentally ill
Readers respond to AIDS effort
Regional workforce meeting planned
School board wants input
TRISTATE DIGEST
