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Sitting in jail after killing his mother, Ronald Weed had something to explain.

"Ray, it wasn't Mom," Weed told his brother. "It wasn't Mom. It was an evil twin."

While the defense and state agree Weed is schizophrenic, evidence in the case kept the insanity defense just out of reach.

Only one question needs to be answered in determining mental capacity as a defense: "Did the defendant know right from wrong at the time of the crime?"

In Weed's case, statements he made after the Aug. 5, 2008, attack that also killed his 12-year-old niece and severely injured her twin sister indicated he knew what he did was wrong, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Cary Shill said at sentencing earlier this month.

Weed must serve 30 years in prison under the plea agreement, which the family questioned at the time, saying he was not mentally fit to enter into the deal.

"They'll say that the person knew right from wrong," said Gail Dembin, of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Atlantic County. "But when a person's psychotic, they're not actually living in the real world. They don't know what's real and what's not."

Dr. Steven Corvari, a forensic psychiatrist who recently joined AtlantiCare's staff, sees it differently. During six years in New York - where he evaluated prisoners at Sing Sing and Rikers Island - he found there is an understanding of what the patients need.

"It's a very liberal state and city," he said of New York. "Every effort is made to keep the mentally ill out of court until such time they can be mentally represented and defend themselves."

While he never testified as part of an insanity defense, Corvari did sometimes go to court to lobby for treatment over incarceration.

Often, however, it is decided that - even without the mental illness - these people would have committed the crimes, he said. For example, in high-profile cases such as those of Jeffrey Dahmer and "Son of Sam" David Berkowitz, "They were covert, covering their actions. They knew right from wrong," Corvari said.

However, those determinations should be made on a case-by-case basis, he cautioned.

There also are allowances in the law between knowing that something is morally wrong and knowing that it is legally wrong. Attorney Charles Peruto Jr. tried to make that distinction when he defended Lavar Lamont Winder, who came to Atlantic City on April 18, 2003, with the intent to kill someone.

Suffering from delusions that he was in danger, Winder said he wanted to get arrested because jail was the only place he would be safe. While that showed it was legally wrong, it did not show that he knew it was morally wrong, Peruto argued.

But before shooting cabdriver Mohamed H. Bouchouar twice in the head, Winder said, "I'm sorry, I have to do this." He also said he would not have shot a child, because that would be wrong.

Superior Court Judge Michael Donio would not present the legal-moral distinction to the jury, ruling that they co-existed in this case. An appellate panel upheld his decision.

Winder was convicted and sentenced to 55 years in prison.

But the best course for those with mental illness is treatment before the patient becomes violent, Corvari said.

He and Dembin lauded the action of Weed's sister, Loretta Largo, who moved to have legislation passed to commit those who refuse to take their medication but have not yet been violent.

Right now, however, Dembin said the state's prisons have more mentally ill people than its hospitals.

"The state hospital seems to be the new jail," she said. "That's not helping people."

Contact Lynda Cohen:

609-272-7257

LCohen@pressofac.com

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