Vocabulary notes

Pressured	под давлением
inmate	обитатель
to adjudge	выносить приговор
to stab	заколоть, наносить удар ножом
to teem with	кишеть
plea	защита подсудимого
diminished capacity	ограниченная способность
to feign	пртворяться, симулировать
hardcore criminal	закоренелый преступник
accomplice	соучастник
to bamboozle	одурачивать
to skyjack	угонять самолет
to gloat	злорадствовать, торжествовать

Task 3. Read the text again and make sure you know all underlined parts of the text. Give their Russian equivalents

Task 4. Answer the following questions:

1. What mistakes do psychi­atrists and state-court judges make and why?

2. Why did George Fitzsimmons murder his relatives?

3. Why has the use of the insanity plea, in some states, increased significantly in recent years?

4. How can hardcore criminals adjudicated NGRI be characterized according to the study?

5. What did Trapnell confess to in a lengthy taped interview with a magazine writer?

6. What sentence did Trapnell finally get?

Task 5. Agree or disagree with the following statements. Agreement or disagreement should be followed by some comment

1. Psychi­atrists and state-court judges never make mistakes.

2. George Fitzsimmons con­vinced psychiatrists that he was no longer dangerous.

3. He told psychiatrists he loved his aunt and uncle "like my own mother and father."

4. Robert E. Miller wound­ed a lot of tourists in an unprovoked snip­er attack.

5. Defendants sent to mental institutions are rarely released earlier than those sent to prison.

6. Garrett Trapnell was arrested at age 20 for armed robbery.

7. Trapnell went to Hospital Center with a diagnosis of “scarlet fever”.

Task 6. Ask the questions to which the following statements are the answers:

1. George Fitzsimmons was adjudged NGRI in the murder of his parents.

2. He stabbed them to death.

3. He was placed on leave and soon returned to the same area.

4. He picked off seven people in the teeming tourist crowds.

5. Some defendants have learned to feign insanity.

6. Hinckley is being held at Washington's St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

7. Trapnell bamboozled more than a dozen psychiatrists into confirming his first diagnosis.

8. He skyjacked an airliner.

9. At the trial, the prosecutor played his taped magazine interview.

Task 7. Explain in English what the words and word combinations mean:

Criminally insane NGRI acquittees, sensational crimes, ex-mental inmates, beneficiary of life insurance, a high-powered rifle, insanity plea, dimin­ished capacity, to feign insanity, manipulative individuals, to skyjack an airliner, a license

.

Task 8. Practice the speech patterns given below. Make up two sentences of your own on each pattern

1. Little wonder that psychi­atrists and state-court judges now generally feel pressured to get the criminally insane NGRI acquittees back onto the streets. No wonder he knows so much; he has been in the line of duty for over ten years.

2. I could go out and shoot ten people; in six months I'd be free. We could make an appointment for Monday; my schedule is not very busy that day.

3. Only after he skyjacked an airliner was he convicted on criminal charges and sentenced to life in prison. Not only are we unable to protect huge numbers of citizens against crime in the first place, but we can’t instill confidence in them. No longer would the jury focus upon largely unanswer­able psychiatric questions. Only then did investigators find that, in both instances, he had had himself named beneficiary of his victims’ life insurance.

4. Since defendants sent to mental institutions are usu­ally released earlier than those sent to prison, some defendants have learned to feign insanity. Since they are cer­tain to lose their license, people do not drink and drive.

5. A study at Washington's St. Elizabeth's Hospital — the very facility where Hinckley is being held concluded that of over 1oo hardcore criminals adjudicated NGRI all were "highly clever, manipulative individuals — not insane at all." We met that very day the crime was committed. The witness told his story from the very beginning twice.

Task 9. Make the summary of the text. Use the key words and word combinations

Text 3

Task 1. Answer the questions:

1. Why are psychiatrists invited to testify in court?

2. Do you believe in insanity defense?

3. Isn’t it dangerous to release NGRI acquittees?

Task 2. Read the text to get the main idea paying special attention to the underlined parts of the text (key words and word combinations

In virtually every celebrated trial involving the insanity defense, psy­chiatrists march in to support oppo­site conclusions. While 18 of the 41 witnesses in the Hinckley trial were physicians, their testimony con­sumed nearly two-thirds of the tri­al; they ruminated on everything from brain shrinkage to the narcissistic personality, from delusions of grandeur to Hinckley's relations with parents and women.

The Hinckley verdict only under­scores the necessity of eliminating the traditional insanity defense. Montana and Idaho have already done so; they confine psychiatrists to testifying whether a defendant was capable of the premeditation required to commit most crimes. Eight states, while retaining the NGRI verdict, allow as an alterna­tive a "guilty but mentally ill" ver­dict, thus emphasizing to jurors that mental illness does not auto­matically excuse a defendant, as some Hinckley jurors apparently believed. Defendants so convicted may receive treatment, but serve out their sentences even if pro­nounced cured.

Long before the Hinckley case, I introduced a bill that would virtu­ally end the insanity defense in federal criminal trials. This bill re­sembles the Montana and Idaho laws; other states should follow their lead. No longer would the jury focus upon largely unanswer­able psychiatric questions: Did the defendant appreciate right from wrong? Did he suffer from some irresistible impulse?

Instead, the jury would focus on this question: Did the defendant possess the requisite state of mind for the charged offense? If he knew what he was doing, he would be found guilty.

Under my legislation, a defend­ant would be found not guilty due to insanity only if his mental problems kept him from knowing what he did. Even then it would confine him to a treatment facility until he could convince a judge "by a pre­ponderance of evidence" that he was no longer a significant risk to society. In many states, mental-hos­pital staffs can release NGRI acquittees; they should be required to persuade a judge that the individ­ual in question is a reasonable risk."

The truly insane criminal is extraordinarily rare. "The classic law-school case of the person who squeezes his wife's throat thinking it was a lemon does not exist in my experience," says University of North Carolina professor of law and psychiatry Seymour Halleck.

If Congress and the states adopt reform bills such as mine, which is supported by Republicans and Democrats, they will protect us from terrible travesties of justice. No longer will highly paid lawyers and batteries of psychiatric witness­es enable the guilty to evade respon­sibility for their crimes.