P v. McGehee (3rd Dist.) Delusion that Victim Was a Demon Doesn't Require a Involuntary Manslaughter Instruction

Mr. McGehee stabbed his mum in the neck 10 times, killing her.  McGehee pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.  He suffered from a mental illness and claimed he was under the delusion that his mother was a demon. A jury found him guilty of second degree murder and found him legally sane at the time of the murder.  

The Third District affirms the conviction.

In the published portions of the opinion, the panel addresses two issues.  The first is whether the trial court erred in instructing the jury that it could only consider the defendant's evidence of mental illness for the purposes of determining whether he formed the specific intent to kill his mum.  McGehee argued that instruction was erroneous given that the court also gave the instruction that allowed the jury to infer consciousness of guilt from false statements McGehee made to his sister following the killing.  McGehee argued that the jury should have been instructed it could also use the mental illness evidence to decide whether he knew the statements were false at the time he made them, or whether due to delusions, he believed them to be true.

The panel agrees with McGehee on this point, the mental health evidence was admissible and relevant to the issue of whether McGehee's false statements amounted to evidence he was aware of his own guilt.  However, placing the error in the context of the remaining evidence, the panel concludes the error did not meet the Watson standard, and hence the issue was forfeited by the lack of objection at the trial.  

The second issue was whether McGehee was entitled to an involuntary manslaughter instruction.  Involuntary manslaughter is an unlawful killing of a human being without malice and without an intent to kill.  While the physical evidence was overwhelming that McGehee intended to kill his mother given the number and severity of the stab wounds, McGehee argued that he didn't intend to kill a human being, rather he intended to kill a demon, and as he did not intend to kill a human being, an involuntary manslaughter instruction was warranted.  The panel is not convinced.  

The opinion acknowledges whether McGehee knew it was his mother he was stabbing or whether he believed she was a demon was a relevant trial issue.  But it holds that it was an issue for the sanity phase of the trial, not the guilt phase.  Just as pure delusion that the victim is a demon cannot constitute the ground for a finding of reasonable self defense, it also cannot negate the intent to kill.  Such questions of pure delusion belong in the sanity phase where they can form the basis for a finding that the defendant did not appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions.  And here the jury found during the sanity phase that McGehee did know it was his mum he was stabbing.