Experienced Mental Health Defense in Georgia

Our law enforcement and criminal justice system is not designed or equipped to fairly and properly handle matters which occur during a mental health crisis. Too often families reach out to law enforcement for help during a mental health emergency, just to find their loved one in a doom loop of arrest, criminal prosecution and jail. Maddox and Carlos strongly believe that the events of psychosis or a mental health crisis are symptoms of disease, not malicious or intentional criminal conduct.

At Kilgore & Rodriguez, we have a long history of successfully representing clients living with symptoms from mental diseases and disorders, including bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, schizo-effective disorder, depression and anxiety-related disorders, PTSD, and developmental or cognitive disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and fetal-alcohol syndrome. Our approach is to work in conjunction with mental health providers and therapists to educate prosecutors on alternatives to treating mental health diseases rather than prosecuting those who are arrested as a result of a mental health crises. Our goal is always treatment over criminal prosecution.

No family is more desperate, or in need of a champion, than when a mentally ill loved one is charged with a serious crime. Despite the recent advent of Mental Health Courts in some jurisdictions, judges and prosecutors are often poorly informed about mental illness and unsympathetic to the obstacles faced by mentally ill defendants charged with a crime. At Kilgore & Rodriguez, we have experience in handling mental health cases and a record of success in navigating the complexity of raising a mental health defense.

The initial consideration for a mentally ill defendant is whether he is competent to stand trial. In fact, a prosecution cannot go forward unless the accused is competent. In Georgia, a defendant is competent to stand trial if he has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and he has a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him. We work closely with some of the best forensic psychologists and psychiatrists in Georgia to evaluate your loved one and determine if he or she is competent to stand trial. If competency is challenged, the accused has the right to a trial on the issue. And the court may order that a mental health professional at the Department of Behavioral Health conduct a forensic evaluation for competency.

If the court finds that the accused is NOT competent to stand trial, the court may order further evaluation to determine whether there is a substantial probability that the accused will attain mental competency in the foreseeable future.

If an accused is deemed competent to stand trial, an insanity defense may be available. Insanity is an affirmative defense which goes to the mental state of the accused at the time of the offense, not his mental competency to stand trial. Georgia recognizes two distinct ways a defendant can be legally insane and therefore not criminally responsible:

1. Lack of mentally capacity to distinguish between right and wrong in relation to the act, omission, or negligence. OCGA 16-3-2.
OR
2. Because of a mental disease, injury, or congenital deficiency, defendant acted because of a delusional compulsion which overmastered his will to resist committing the crime. OCGA 16-3-3.

In Georgia, the accused bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of evidence that he or she was insane at the time of the offense. If found not guilty by reason of insanity, the accused becomes a patient and will be remanded to the custody of the Department of Behavioral Health where he or she will be evaluated and treated in a State Mental Hospital. Maddox and Carlos have worked closely with psychologists and administrators at the Department of Behavioral Health and understand the forensic STEP system employed by DBHDD for the evaluation, treatment, and release of patients found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Whenever an insanity defense is interposed, jurors in Georgia also have the curious option of returning a verdict of GUILTY BUT MENTALLY ILL. However, a guilty but mentally ill verdict is legally indistinguishable from a verdict of GUILTY. In both instances the accused is remanded to the Georgia Department of Corrections (state prison). Sadly, state prisons are not equipped to treat moderately or severely mentally ill patients. To the contrary, state prisons can be an incredibly dangerous place for those suffering from mental diseases such as schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, PTSD, or even autism. Maddox and Carlos strongly believe that the mentally ill in the criminal justice system should be treated in a safe and secure environment (state mental hospital), rather than warehoused in state prison.

Maddox and Carlos are veterans of numerous insanity trials and have successfully defended multiple clients charged with murder, obtaining verdicts of Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity.

Types of Mental Health Cases We Serve