Abstract
LB 518 represents the most recent proposal to amend Nebraska law governing disposition of individuals acquitted of crimes by reason of insanity. The bill proposes to change the kind of evidence relevant to evaluating the dangerousness of an insanity acquittee. Additionally, the bill provides courts with authority to order a variety of treatment programs. This Note examines the provisions of LB 518 in light of issues encompassed by the growing body of scholarship known as therapeutic jurisprudence. First, the Note introduces the background, procedural history, and substantive provisions of LB 518. Second, the Note analyzes the bill's provisions from a therapeutic jurisprudential perspective. Specifically, the Note focuses on promotion of psychological dysfunction, promotion of therapeutic objectives, therapeutic aspects of legal procedures, and therapeutic aspects of judicial actions. The Note concludes that LB 518 has great potential to promote therapeutic objectives, limited only by judicial application of the bill's provisions.
Recommended Citation
Sherin S. Vitro,
Promoting Therepeutic Objectives through LB 518: A Sane Amendment to Nebraska Law Governing the Disposition of Insanity Acquittees,
72 Neb. L. Rev.
(1993)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol72/iss3/7