THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

SENATE BILL

INTRODUCED BY BOSCOLA, ALLOWAY AND WAUGH, MARCH 7, 2011

REFERRED TO JUDICIARY, MARCH 7, 2011  

AN ACT

Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania

Consolidated Statutes, further providing for the defense of

insanity.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1.  Sections 314(c) and (d) and 315 of Title 18 of

the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes are amended to read:

§ 314.  Guilty but mentally ill.

* * *

(c)  Definitions.--For the purposes of this section and 42

Pa.C.S. § 9727 (relating to disposition of persons found guilty

but mentally ill):

(1)  "Mentally ill."  One who as a result of mental

disease or defect, lacks substantial capacity either to

appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his

conduct to the requirements of the law.

(2)  "Legal insanity."  At the time of the commission of

[the act, the defendant was laboring under such a defect of

reason, from disease of the mind, as not to 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 what was wrong.

(d)  Common law M'Naghten's Rule preserved.--Nothing in this

section shall be deemed to repeal or otherwise abrogate the

common law defense of insanity (M'Naghten's Rule) in effect in

this Commonwealth on the effective date of this section.] the

offense, the actor was laboring under such a defect of reason

from disease of the mind as not to know the nature and quality

of the act he was doing.

§ 315.  Insanity.

(a)  General rule.--The mental soundness of an actor [engaged

in conduct charged to constitute an offense shall only be a

defense to the charged offense when the actor proves by a

preponderance of evidence that the actor was legally insane at

the time of the commission of the offense.] shall not be a

defense to a charged offense. There shall be no verdict of not

guilty by reason of insanity.

(a.1)  Admissibility of evidence.--Evidence of legal insanity

of the actor shall be admissible only for the purpose of proving

that the insanity rendered the actor incapable of forming the

requisite intent or state of mind which is an element of the

offense.

(b)  Definition.--[For purposes of this section, the phrase

"legally insane"] As used in this section, the term "legal

insanity" means that, at the time of the commission of the

offense, the actor was laboring under such a defect of reason[,]

from disease of the mind[,] as not to know the nature and

quality of the act he was doing [or, if the actor did know the

quality of the act, that he did not know that what he was doing

was wrong].

Section 2.  This act shall take effect in 60 days.