Bill Would Require Defendants' Mental Health Evaluations Be Recorded
By Shaun Boyd
DENVER (CBS4) - A bill at the state capitol would require defendants who plead not guilty by reason of insanity to undergo a taped mental health evaluation.
"There is nothing we have seen as a system that provides us with as much truth as video," said 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler
Brauchler was the lead prosecutor in the Aurora theater shooting trial. He says a 23-hour videotaped mental health evaluation was pivotal in determining James Holmes' sanity.
Juror number 17 agrees. She told a senate committee the taped evaluation was the "single most impactful testimony" she heard at trial.
"To see how he answered, to see what he answered and to see the types of questions the psychiatrist asked, the same questions we would ask if we were trying to get to the truth and every one of us used our best efforts in getting to the truth," she said.
Right now, there is no requirement that such evaluations be taped.
"Whatever bias that the psychiatrist or psychologist has, we're stuck with it. If they have a problem taking notes or a problem with recollection, we're stuck with it. A videotape provides the optimal setting to challenge, to examine, to cross examine someone who generates the pivotal piece of information on some of the biggest, most important cases we have," said Brauchler.
Psychologists and psychiatrists, however, argue that by removing all confidentiality, they won't be able to build the trust needed to get at the truth.
"If the first thing I have to do is say, 'by the way I'm going to record this, here's the camera', I'm afraid it's going to shut down a number of these evaluations to the point that you then have to come back to the court and say I'm sorry the person was too paranoid to participate because of the presence of the camera or videotaping," said forensic psychiatrist Richard Martinez.
He says mandating taped evaluations will decrease transparency and increase costs.
"You are going to multiply the time, cost and expense. There's a lot of issues about how the video, the recording will be treated, how it will be preserved, who will see it," he said.
But Brauchler says, "If they trust their notes and if they trust their reports now and represent that those are accurate, why would having a videotape increase the amount of time it takes to generate that? And, I think our answer would be they want to review the video to make sure their notes are accurate. That's why we have the bill."
The bill allows judges to waive taped evaluations in certain cases. North Dakota is the only state where sanity exams are required to be taped. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 3-2.
Shaun Boyd is CBS4's political specialist. She's a veteran reporter with more than 25 years of experience. Follow her on Twitter @cbs4shaun.
