People v. Serravo case brief

People v. Serravo case brief summary
823 P.2d 128 (1992)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Petitioner state sought review of a decision of the Colorado Court of Appeals, which held that respondent accused was insane under the legal test for insanity.

CASE FACTS
The accused was charged with crimes of attempt to commit first degree murder after deliberation after the accused stabbed his wife. The accused entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The issue of legal insanity was tried to a jury, which returned a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

DISCUSSION

• The court granted certiorari to review the decision of the court of appeals in order to determine the meaning of the phrase "incapable of distinguishing right from wrong" in the state's statutory definition of insanity codified at 8A Colo. Rev. Stat. § 16-8-101(1) (1986). 
• The court held that "incapable of distinguishing right from wrong" refereed to a cognitive inability to distinguish right from wrong under existing societal standards of morality rather than under a purely subjective and personal standard of morality. 
• In addition, rather than characterizing the deific-decree delusion as an exception to the right-wrong test for legal insanity, the court held that a defendant could be judged legally insane where the defendant's cognitive ability to distinguish right from wrong with respect to an act charged as a crime had been destroyed as a result of a psychotic delusion.

CONCLUSION
The judgment of the court of appeals was approved, in part, and disapproved, in part.

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