{"id":134422,"date":"2026-01-28T03:44:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134422\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T03:44:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:44:35","slug":"bill-eliminating-insanity-defense-scrapes-through-first-committee-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134422\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill eliminating insanity defense scrapes through first committee stop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The 13th Judicial Circuit Court in Tampa, Florida on May 17, 2023. Credit: Photo by Dave Decker<\/p>\n

A Florida bill that would eliminate the insanity defense barely squeaked by its first committee hearing Monday amid withering criticisms but only after the bill sponsor promised to make substantial changes.<\/p>\n

SB 1326<\/a>\u00a0would require Florida judges to sentence offenders found guilty who intended to commit their crimes to prison, even if the accused couldn\u2019t tell whether their actions were right or wrong. It was inspired by fears that Florida could accidentally release violent, legally insane offenders onto the street.<\/p>\n

But the bill had glaring loopholes: Its language could remove the option for offenders to receive court-mandated mental health treatment. An independent senator called the legislation \u201ccrap,\u201d a Democrat deemed it \u201cunjust,\u201d and a Republican voted \u201cno,\u201d resulting in SB 1326 barely passing in a 4-to-3 vote.<\/p>\n

However, Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin, the bill\u2019s sponsor, acknowledged problems and promised changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill is something that is far from perfect,\u201d he said in the Senate Criminal Justice committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, it\u2019s our first attempt to deal with the issue that comes up when somebody is guilty of a heinous act and, but for the fact that they\u2019re being found not guilty legally for reasons of insanity, they would serve a very long prison sentence,\u201d the Fort Myers Republican added.<\/p>\n

Florida is one of 25 states that uses the prevailing \u201cright-wrong test,\u201d or \u201cM\u2019Naghten Rule.\u201d The strictest of insanity defenses, defendants can only be declared legally insane if they\u2019re unable to tell the difference between right and wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Twenty-six other states use looser versions of the defense, while just four states have outlawed it altogether. Florida hopes to follow that latter pattern.<\/p>\n

Despite this, the insanity defense is used in fewer than 1% of cases nationwide, and is successful in just a quarter of those attempts. That means roughly\u00a030 Americans<\/a>\u00a0every year are declared not guilty by reason of insanity.<\/p>\n

Harsh criticism<\/p>\n

The measure ran into serious problems during its Monday afternoon stop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This included that the language would prevent judges from issuing a lesser sentence than usual if circumstances warrant and fails to mandate mental health treatment for unwell offenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crap the way it\u2019s written right now,\u201d said Sen. Jason Pizzo, a former prosecutor and the sole independent lawmaker in the Legislature. The Hollywood NPA emphasized that he doesn\u2019t believe the Legislature should take \u201cthe pen out of\u201d judges\u2019 hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know where you\u2019re trying to get \u2026 but we have some judges that \u2026 I would trust to find the appropriate remedy,\u201d he added. Despite this, Pizzo voted yes because he believes the insanity defense needs reform and if Martin\u2019s bill dies Monday, so would the issue.<\/p>\n

Democratic Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, representing Orlando, took a different approach. He called the idea of removing judges\u2019 ability to make special changes \u201cunjust,\u201d and a \u201cpublic safety risk,\u201d deriding the idea of putting a violent offender in prison with no available treatment options.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what our prisons are dealing with. They are bursting at the seams, they are overcrowded, they are understaffed,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAnd this bill forces more people with serious mental illnesses deeper into a prison system that\u2019s already failing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining Smith in his \u201cno\u201d vote were Democratic Sen. Mack Bernard from West Palm Beach and Miami Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia.<\/p>\n

Where did it come from?<\/p>\n

SB 1326 is a priority bill for Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. In October, Uthmeier called for sweeping reforms to the state\u2019s insanity defense, inspired by a 2015 case out of Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Ronald Exantus stabbed a 6-year-old to death in Versailles, Kentucky. He was convicted of assault, but found not guilty by reason of insanity of murder.\u00a0After serving less than half of his 20-year sentence, he was placed on mandatory supervised release.<\/p>\n

Exantus moved to Florida, where he lived in Marion County near an elementary school and subsequently failed to register as a felon. So, Uthmeier in October led the charge to repatriate him to Kentucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow what happened in Kentucky to ever occur in Florida,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

Of note, Kentucky abides by a weaker version of the insanity defense than Florida, called the Model Penal Code. This allows defendants to be declared legally insane if they couldn\u2019t tell right from wrong or could not control an impulse that led to the crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although 21 states use the MPC, it largely fell out of favor when the attempted Ronald Reagan assassin, John Hinckley Jr., was found\u00a0not guilty<\/a>\u00a0by reason of insanity through it.<\/p>\n

If Martin\u2019s bill backed by the AG passes, it would replace the \u201cright-wrong test,\u201d with intent to commit a crime. This closely reflects a controversial, yet landmark, law out of Kansas. The Kansas law, fully eliminating the insanity defense, was battled up to the\u00a0U.S. Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0in 2020, where it was ultimately decided that states don\u2019t have to adopt insanity defense laws.<\/p>\n

Because Pizzo at the end of the meeting moved to reconsider the bill before the same committee, SB 1326 will come up before the same slate of lawmakers next week.<\/p>\n

Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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