Donald W. Myers III (Defendant) was convicted and found guilty but mentally ill, following a jury trial in the Circuit Court, Steuben County, Allen N. Wheat, J., of four counts of attempted murder on the basis that he was guilty, but mentally ill. Myers appealed.

The Indiana Supreme Court, David, J., held that (1) the verdict was supported by the evidence; . . . (3) the sentence of 30 years consecutive on each count was not inappropriate, and Affirmed.

Donald W. Myers, III, has a history of mental illness,and has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Unprovoked, Myers fired a shotgun several times at multiple vehicles, including a police cruiser. Myers was ultimately convicted on four counts of attempted murder. The jury found Myers guilty but mentally ill. Myers claims that no reasonable jury could have reached this conclusion and that he should have been found not guilty by reason of insanity. . . .

We seek to emphasize the great adherence our judicial system affords to the right of a trial by jury and the verdicts reached by those juries. The U.S. Supreme Court has declared that “the basic purpose of a trial is the determination of truth . . . and it is the jury to whom we have entrusted the responsibility. . . .” Brown v. Louisiana, 447 U.S. 323, 334 (1980) This Court has also acknowledged that the jury trial is a “fundamental right in our democratic judicial system that must be scrupulously guarded against encroachment.” Having completed our review, we affirm the jury’s verdict finding Myers guilty but mentally ill.

Facts

In 2000, Donald W. Myers, III, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Starting in young adulthood, Myers was treated at hospitals in Indiana and Alabama for his mental health issues and was prescribed various anti-psychotic medications. In 2004, Myers was living with his mother at the Silver Lake Trailer Court off of U.S. 20. Towards the end of April 2004, Myers’s mother, Judy Wininger, noticed that Myers was no longer taking his anti-psychotic medications, and she contacted Northeastern Center, a counseling center where Myers had previously been treated. The hospital prepared a bed for Myers to be admitted upon Wininger’s request on April 28, 2004. However, Myers refused to go......

1. State the elements of Indiana’s version of the right–wrong test.

2. List all the facts relevant to each element of the test.

3. Summarize the trial court’s reasons for ruling that Donald Myers was not insane at the time of the crime.

4. Summarize the majority’s arguments that Myers was “Guilty but mentally ill.”

5. Summarize why the dissenters reasons why the trial court judge’s verdict should not be overturned.

6. Which is the best argument? Defend your answer.