Lawyers say insanity defense rarely works

From The Boston Globe:

Jurors in the "Clark Rockefeller" trial acted in both expected and unexpected ways in reaching their verdicts, veteran defense lawyers said yesterday.

By rejecting the insanity defense, the Suffolk Superior Court jury reached the conclusion most juries come to when wrestling with a case in which mental illness is raised as an explanation for criminal behavior, lawyers said.

"It's not unusual that a jury finds an individual to be sane at the time," said Timothy J. Burke, a former assistant Suffolk district attorney who is now a defense lawyer in Needham. "Although the individual exhibits bizarre behavior, it's extremely difficult to establish the necessary elements regarding the insanity defense, so I am not surprised."

But Burke and other observers were puzzled by the panel's decision to acquit the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller of giving a false name to police, given that authorities seem to have overwhelming proof that he is not a Rockefeller.

"I don't think anyone can explain that without having been inside the jury room," Burke said.

Boston defense lawyer Michael P. Doolin suggested that the jury had some compassion for Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, and acquitted him for the false name charge because they concluded that the German immigrant believes his own fiction.

"I think the government proved that wasn't his name," Doolin said. "The jury, perhaps, decided that he has been giving that name for so long, he thought it was his name."

Doolin said that as a defense lawyer, he rarely uses the insanity defense because it is seldom successful.

In this case, he added, Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David Deakin generated powerful evidence showing that Rockefeller had mapped out the kidnapping in advance.

Prosecutors showed the kidnapping was deliberate and well planned out, Doolin said, adding that Gerhartsreiter's actions were not those of someone who was suffering from some sort of mental illness.

Doolin said the decision by Rockefeller's legal team to invoke the insanity defense was driven by the facts of the case. The evidence of Rockefeller's actions was overwhelming, leaving his attorneys with few or no options.

"I think the insanity defense should be best used as a last resort," Doolin said. "And I think that was probably the last resort in this case, because, based on the evidence, it was clear he was guilty."

Rockefeller was sentenced to four to five years in state prison by Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frank M. Gaziano.

Gaziano was appointed to the Superior Court in 2004 by Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican. He spent the bulk of his legal career as a prosecutor in Plymouth County, then worked in the US attorney's office in Boston. He was one of the prosecutors who secured a death penalty for drifter Gary Sampson, who was convicted of a series of murders in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

From the bench, Gaziano said he considered Rockefeller to be a devoted father as he pondered what sentence to give him for the parental kidnapping.

But the judge said that he also took into account that Rockefeller's plan, if ultimately successful, would have permanently deprived Sandra Boss of seeing her daughter, Reigh, again.

"He thought he would be able to outmaneuver Sandra Boss by taking her money and then at the right time taking his daughter," Gaziano said, referring to Rockefeller's former wife. "The defendant committed this crime with complete disregard for the anguish this would cause Ms. Boss."

For those reasons, the judge said, Rockefeller deserved to be given nearly the maximum sentence allowed under the state's parental kidnapping law.

Burke anticipated that Gaziano would give Rockefeller credit for his well-documented caretaking of his daughter, prior to the kidnapping.

"It doesn't excuse what [Rockefeller] did," Burke said, "but it would give me pause as a judge to assess what's appropriate here."

Doolin noted that Rockefeller will be credited with about 10 months for the time he has served awaiting trial and that he probably could face the state Parole Board for the first time in about three years. There is no guarantee Rockefeller will be granted parole the first time around, Doolin said.

He said Gaziano's sentence and the reasons the judge publicly gave for imposing it should send a message to other parents locked in bitter custody disputes.

"These are very emotional cases," Doolin said. "Sometimes there is reason in mitigation as to why these [parental kidnappings] happen. But it also speaks to the fact that if there is a court order, you have to abide by it. You can't take the law into your own hands."