Defense Wins Rare Insanity Verdict in Florida Murder Case
It isn’t all that unusual to assert an insanity defense. But winning a murder case on that basis is such a rarity that courthouse observers in a South Florida case can’t remember the last time it happened … until now.
A trial last week in Miami concluded with a jury verdict that Johnnie Horne, 33, was not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1996 murder of his parents, reports the Miami Herald. His sister survived the shooting rampage and testified at the trial, which was delayed for a decade in part because Horne had been determined to be incompetent to assist in his own defense and was receiving mental treatment.
The insanity defense in this case was particularly difficult: Attorney G.P. Della Fera, who represented Horne, had to contend with a statement he made to police after the murders, in which he allegedly lied about the cause of their deaths to try to deflect blame from himself. However, the jury returned an insanity verdict after about five hours of deliberation.
Reportedly, they may have been influenced by a comment several members of the jury attributed to the judge that Horne won’t get out either way, although Della Fera and the prosecutor in the case say no such comment was made, and the prosecution, Della Fera adds, argued otherwise.
”These are just terrible facts for an insanity defense,” says attorney Milt Hirsch of the case Della Fera had to make. But Horne’s demeanor, he suspects, made the difference: “Oftentimes what it comes down to is jurors will say to you, ‘I was looking at that guy. I watched him, I saw him. He’s not faking it. There’s something way, way wrong with him.’ ”
