Insanity (California Penal Code 1026/1027) and Sanity Restoration Assessments (1026.2/1026.5)

Sanity and Sanity Restoration Assessments are essential components of our forensic services, helping to determine an individual’s mental state at the time of an offense and their current dangerousness if released into the community under our Sanity Restoration Assessments. Our experienced professionals conduct thorough evaluations to assist the court in informing legal decisions to ensure that the individual requesting release will be provided the necessary support.

• 1026/1027 Cases – California Penal Code 1027 pertains to individuals who are pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. When an individual enters a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, the test is whether at the time of the offense, the individual was incapable or knowing or understanding the nature and quality of his or her act and of distinguishing right from wrong (California Penal Code 25).
  
  This assessment is established on the M’Naghten rule. The M’Naghten rule, as defined, states that an accused was laboring under such a mental defect, disease, or disorder, that the person was unable to know or understand the nature and quality of the act they were doing, or if they did know it, they did not know what they were doing was wrong (People v. Horn, (1984) 158 Cal.App.3d 1014: Proposition 8, the Victim’s Bill of Rights, at the June 1982 Primary Election. Under this statute, a defendant is insane only when “he was incapable of knowing or understanding the nature and quality of his or her act or, if he did know it, that he did not know what he was doing of distinguishing right from wrong at the time of the commission of the offense.”
• 1026.2/1026.5 Cases –

  California Penal Code 1026.1 (Grounds for post-commitment release) pertains to individuals who are applying for restoration of sanity. Individuals who are committed to a state hospital or other treatment facility under the provisions of Section 1026 shall be released from the state hospital or other treatment facility only under one or more of the following circumstances:

(a) Pursuant to the provisions of Section 1026.2, it is a two-step process where an individual attempts to demonstrate that they are no longer a danger to the health and safety of others due to a mental defect, disease, or disorder while under supervision and treatment in the community. In this first step, an individual is attempting to demonstrate that they will no longer be a danger to others while under the supervision and treatment in the community. If the court finds this to be true, the person is then placed in an appropriate forensic conditional release program for one year. After a year, the court will hold a trial to determine whether the defendant’s sanity is restored.

(b) California Penal Code Section 1026.3 permits a person who was committed to a state hospital or other treatment facility to be placed on outpatient status from the commitment only if the medical experts who plan and provide treatment conclude that such treatment would benefit the offender and cause no undue hazard to the community. (Pen. Code, § 1600 et seq.). (Pen. Code, § 1026.1; see People v. Dobson (2008) 161 Cal.App.4th 1422, 1432.)

(c) Upon expiration of the maximum term of commitment as provided in subdivision (a) of Section 1026.5, except as such term may be extended under the provisions of subdivision (b) (1) of Section 1026.5.