25. Steven Steinberg’s Acquittal Led Arizona to Change Its Insanity Defense Laws
Steven Steinberg was helped by evidence of police sloppiness and incompetence during their investigation. A defense psychiatrist also testified that Steinberg killed his wife while in the grip of a dissociative reaction, and so he could not have been aware of what he was doing. Steinberg himself was a presentable person who came across as a nice guy. After deliberating, the jury returned its verdict, finding that he was not guilty on grounds of temporary insanity when he killed his wife.
Because Steinberg’s insanity was only temporary and he was sane when acquitted, Steinberg walked out of court a free man. As a result, Arizona changed its insanity defense law to require judges to impose a “guilty but insane” sentence in temporary insanity scenarios such as that of the Steinberg case. Now, criminal defendants who are found guilty but insane are sent to a mental institute, where they might be interred for as long as if they had been sentenced to prison.
