Thomas Simich Jr Ordered for Psychiatric Treatment for 90 Days to Determine Competency for Trial

A double homicide murderer, Thomas Simich Jr., was ordered by the Beaver County judge yesterday that he be transferred to Mayview State Hospital in South Fayette. The psychiatrist, Dr. Christine Martone, will re-evaluate him within in 90 days of his treatment, the time-period required under a Pennsylvania statute.

This was ordered by the judge when Thomas Simich Jr made claims of having delusional episodes where "etheral voices" told him to harm his family:

Mr. Simich, who is deaf, told Dr. Martone in a July 13 interview at the Beaver County Jail that he heard voices telling him to harm his family. The voices also told him he was going to be the last person on earth, according to the Bible.

He does understand the charges against him, she said. However, the delusions and hallucinations he has experienced in recent months would make it impossible for him to distinguish reality from fantasy in the courtroom.

The old "I heard voices" claim may resonate well with a hearing person who may have these episodes but since Thomas Simich Jr was born deaf he cannot hear and thus only "hear" in terms of the visual aspect of signing rather than hearing phonetically the words inside the head as if you were thinking in worded thoughts. This etheral "voice" claim is a similar claim that of Joseph Mesa who is also deaf and was a student at Gallaudet University where the murder took place.

Now, those of you may remember the Joseph Mesa's case. Joseph Mesa's lawyer tried to use the insanity case where Joseph had "talking hands" telling him to do bad things which is pretty much in the same vein with a hearing person standing trial for murder claiming to hear voices telling him/her what to do:

The prosecution turned back efforts by Mesa's attorney to portray the Guam native as a mentally ill man who thought a pair of black hands were telling him to do bad things. "An insanity defense doesn't work if you're not insane," said Boasberg.

The insanity plea didn't work and Joseph Mesa received a life in prison sentence. But even with this sentencing the attorney for Mesa tried to question the interpreter's skill and whether Mesa properly waived his rights when interviewed of the murders.

The difference between Mesa and Simich Jr is that Thomas Simich Jr had a history of mental problems and drug abuse. Joseph Mesa murdered one student while Thomas Simich Jr. murdered two, his deaf sister and deaf brother-in-law. Murdering another person is in itself a mental problem. And sometimes claiming mental incompetence does not always work:

First Assistant District Attorney Anthony Berosh, the prosecutor in the Simich case, compared the circumstances to those in the Richard S. Baumhammers case before it went to trial in 2001. A judge had said the Mt. Lebanon man was mentally unfit to stand trial for a racially motivated killing rampage.

But after two delays for competency evaluations, Baumhammers was tried, convicted and received a death sentence. Berosh helped prosecute Baumhammers.

Is the insanity plea a valid legal defense?

Although high profile cases have distorted the facts surrounding insanity defenses, the insanity plea is a valid legal defense. Insanity defenses involve a thorough process of psychiatric evaluation to determine the mental health of the accused. In order to gain release, a hospital or state appointed board must approve their request. Insanity pleas are not made that frequently and are usually uncontested by prosecutors.

A study conducted in the early 1990s involving eight states found that less than one percent of criminal defendants used insanity defenses. A quarter of these resulted in successful acquittals.

**A number of states have replaced the option of pleading "not guilty by reason of insanity" with pleading "guilty but mentally ill".

**Between 60 percent and 70 percent of cases in which the insanity plea is invoked are for crimes other than murder.

**Idaho, Montana, and Utah currently prohibit insanity defenses, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

**The McNaughtan rule was defined as: "To establish a defense of insanity, it must be proved that at the time of committing the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as to not know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing something wrong."

**Following his trial, McNaughton spent twenty years in a mental asylum until his death.

For the state of Pennsylvannia, the death penalty does exist. However, in Joseph Mesa's case in Washington D.C., the District of Columbia has no death penalty punishment. Any murderer on trial would in fact take up the "insanity" defense in a state where there is a death penalty just to avoid getting fried. Actually, Nebraska is the only state that requires electrocution. In this case, Pennsylvannia's method is by lethal injection.

Past postings on the brutal double homicide where Simich Jr used a 20-gauge shotgun are found here, here, here, here and here. Will Thomas Simich Jr. be found competent to stand trial after the 90 day mental evaluation and treatment? Will attorneys for Simich Jr. plead insanity if found incompetent to stand trial and get the mental institution? Will he get jail for life if found competent to stand trial? Or the death penalty? Stay tuned....