The issue of court-ordered psychiatric evaluation for defendants has been brought to the fore by three current cases that have shocked and angered Jamaicans, some of whom believe that the examination is being used as a channel to an insanity plea. However, two of the island’s more prominent mental health scientists insist that accused individuals have a right to be assessed and the country needs to be educated about the process.

“There’s something called the rule of law, and the other thing is called psychological need for punishment. The two things, sometimes, are inconsistent. If we have a country that believes in the rule of law, then there are certain basic realities; a person must be fit to plead and if the person is psychologically compromised… not adequately cognitively competent, that is a reality that must be taken into consideration,” psychologist Dr Leahcim Semaj argued.

“We have to examine all options. A person is innocent until proven guilty. A newspaper report is not testimony or proof of a person’s guilt. So trial by media, that’s not where the trial takes place. There’s also the court of public opinion which sometimes can be totally wrong because the public deals with the most bizarre, outrageous, visible aspects of the crime,” added Semaj.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Aggrey Irons agreed, arguing that as long as the rule of law exists, mental fitness can never be ruled out.

“It will always be practicable that people be given an opportunity to prove that they had the mental intent at the time of the incident, and the mental capacity later on down to follow their own trial. Two things have to be established; the state of mind of the person at the time the incident occurred and whether that state of mind changed and they are perfectly normal to follow the trial and so forth,” Dr Irons told the Jamaica Observer.

Last month in the St Catherine Circuit Court, Justice Bertram Morrison ordered that Chaddane Harris, the gym instructor who became known as the Portmore serial rapist, undergo a psychiatric evaluation before being sentenced.

Harris, who was charged with 32 counts including six counts of rape and four counts of grievous sexual assault, had pleaded guilty to 21 of the charges. His matter was postponed until October 11 to facilitate the psychiatric evaluation.

On June 28, prosecutors requested that a psychiatric evaluation be done on Rushane Barnett, who has been charged with five counts of murder in the brutal slayings of 31-year-old Kemesha Wright, a practical nursing student, and her five children — 15-year-old Kimanda Smith, 12-year-old Sharalee Smith, five-year-old Rafaella Smith, and 23-month-old Kishawn Henry. Their bodies were found with multiple stab wounds and their throats slashed at their house on New Road, Cocoa Piece, Chapelton district, Clarendon, on June 21, 2022.

Supreme Court Justice Leighton Pusey had explained that it was necessary that the medical check be done to ensure that there are no medical reasons which would prevent Barnett from undergoing a trial.

In November 2021, a Supreme Court judge ordered that a psychiatric evaluation be conducted on Andre Ruddock, the man accused of slashing the throat of Appliance Traders Limited employee Taneka Gardner, and wounding another congregant at Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries in Albion, St James, in October 2021.

According to Semaj, certain facts must be established, one of which is whether or not the accused is fit to plead.

“Many people will say, ‘Lawyer just a try get the man off the case.’ Would somebody in their sane mind do something like that? It has to be established whether the person was of sound mind when they did the alleged crime. The public is usually not willing to even consider that or hear that, but sometimes the more bizarre the crime is, the more that aspect must be examined,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Irons agreed, pointing to the fact that Jamaica doesn’t value these necessary steps.

“As usual, it is when you judge a situation off of your own standards — in other words, putting yourself in the position of the so called defendant — that you realise that the checks and balances are valid. So it stands to reason that anybody who is accused of any crime should have the right to psychiatric evaluation, particularly if the crime is bizarre or excessive,” he said.

In June 2020, a Mental Health (Offenders) Inquiry Committee was established and tasked with assessing how Jamaica’s courts treat with the mentally ill or disordered in conflict with the law, being detained in correctional institutions for protracted periods of time.

The committee submitted its report in August that year, stating that in circumstances involving mentally disordered defendants, mental health services will be involved.

“All these entities impact the life of the mentally disordered defendant. The court is the entity charged with the protection of the rights and liberties of all individuals to include the mentally disordered defendant and, by law, must make decisions as to how best to treat with such persons,” the report stated.

It added that the head of the judiciary has recognised and acknowledged that the court is accountable, in part, for the fate of those defendants who have been incarcerated when they have been found unfit to plead.

It also acknowledged that defendants who do become fit to plead have not been brought before the court in a timely manner and, therefore, remain incarcerated for inordinately long periods.

Semaj argued that defence attorneys are well within their right to examine psychological or psychiatric wellness.

“If the person is not fit to plead, then you really cannot be holding that person criminally liable. For example, if somebody is below a certain age, they are a child. If somebody’s cognitive capability is below a certain stage so that they don’t really understand right from wrong and all of that, that’s where we have the problem,” he said.

But that, Semaj argued, isn’t bulletproof, and can always be contested.

“Remember now, that if the defence does present that, it can be challenged in court. Whatever expert testimony the defence puts up, it can be challenged. So it is not the end of the road. The rule of law has to prevail,” he said.

Irons said people are peeved because they don’t put themselves “in the position of the accused, or in the position of those whose rights have been denied”.

“People tend to take a popular position, and that popular position is usually that which leads to the mass taking action. And, of course, we know that in Jamaican society the mentally ill are seriously stigmatised and that has continued unabated. So that’s a big part of it,” Irons said.

Semaj lamented that because the society believes in retribution and punishment, people hold the view that even the slightest perception of guilt should be punished.

“That’s why we have things like mob killings, and many times they are wrong. Persons who have those positions, I bet you that they would think very differently if a relative of theirs or they themselves were accused of something. The assumption is, ‘It would never happen to me.’ That is why I think it is important that the country be educated as to how this process works,” Semaj told the Sunday Observer.