Mental Illness and the Criminal Court System

I confess:  like many people, I am sure, I simply don’t understand mental illness.  I have a hard time understanding what it is, why it happens and accepting it as a mental condition, as opposed to an excuse for justifying bad behaviour. 

However, I am a little closer to accepting and understanding that it exists and is not the “fault” of the person who has it. 

A couple of weeks ago, the saga of a former Crown Attorney (whom I’ll call Mr. D.) came to an end.  This lawyer was very well respected and had been a Crown Attorney for about 10 years.  He handled tough cases, worked hard, was very good and, to boot, was a heck of a nice guy. 

What most of us didn’t know is that he had been battling mental illness, specifically, bipolar disorder which caused manic depression and hypomania, for about 10 years.  He had previously been in private practice and had been forced to leave private practice when it became known that he had mishandled client trust money.  He did not personally benefit from that incident, but it was wrong.  He then joined the Crown’s office (where there is no money held in trust, hence, no risk of that re-occurring) and distinguished himself as a “dedicated and gifted prosecutor” (in the words of the Court of Appeal).  Unfortunately, in hindsight it turns out that he was not being adequately medicated for his condition.

However, Mr. D. ended up being one of three trustees for a scholarship fund.  The two other trustees were appointed to be judges and resigned, leaving only Mr. D. 

Unfortunately, Mr. D. mishandled the money and did some other things that he should not have done.  The interesting thing is that, almost exclusively, his wrongs were committed for altruistic purposes:  he was trying to help other people.

Mr. D. was far too smart to do such stupid things.  He knew the law well enough to know that he was doing something wrong.  He knew that, as a Crown Attorney, it was even more important that he not do anything improper. 

So how do explain what he did?  Why throw away a career for such silly and avoidable behaviour? 

In my mind, I can only come to terms with what has happened by accepting that the mental illness which he has as the explanation.  There is no other explanation for why such a good, smart, dedicated person would do something like that.

In case you are wondering if I am “defending” him only because he is a lawyer, I’ll assure you that is not the case.  I have struggled personally with how I feel about this case.  I don’t have much sympathy for lawbreakers.  I, like many, get skeptical when murderers claim temporary insanity as a defence. 

However, Mr. D. was a lawyer for almost 20 years.  He has not only got a jail sentence to deal with:  he no longer has a career.  He will never practice law again.  His misdeeds are not excusable.  However, his mental illness helps explain them.

In the end, I am saddened by the whole thing.  I have also come to accept that mental illness is, at least to some extent, an explanation for some people’s criminal behaviour.