Mentally Ill Man Who Murdered a Law Enforcement Officer May Be Released

Eric Clark, an allegdly severely mentally ill man convicted in 2003 of murdering Flagstaff, Ariz. police officer Jeffrey Moritz in 2000, was just ordered freed or retried because evidence of his mental illness was withheld from his initial trial, reports the Treatment Advocacy Center.

According to U.S. District Court Judge Jay R. Irwin, before Mr. Clark killed Officer Moritz, Clark's family spent years trying to get the Arizona mental health system to treat him. They wouldn't. When Clark was arrested for a previous DUI and possession of drugs, his parents "begged the juvenile people to keep him because of his mental health issues, but they released him." His parents even hired an attorney to try to get authorities to press charges and keep him detained for treatment, the judge wrote.

The case shows the need for change. Rather than being released, Mr. Clark will likely be retried. If retried and found "not guilty because of mental illness," he could be released with no requirement to stay in treatment, which could also lead to another incident.

To prevent this, one proposal would allow courts to compel people found guilty because of mental illness, or not guilty because of mental illness, or unfit to stand trial, to stay in treatment for the maximum amount of time they would have served had they been found guilty. This treatment could be in a locked ward, if needed, or in outpatient treatment. The person could be moved from one to the other on an as-needed basis, with no further due process needed, and subjected to mandatory and directly observed treatment to prevent future dangerous behavior.

People who commit crimes because of their insanity need to be kept sane. Mandated enforced treatment can do that.

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Comments

[mkcool]

10:36 PM on 12/31/2011

Good for him! He should have plead NGRI. That's what I did!

[tracyamanda]

08:01 PM on 12/31/2011

Where's the justice for the MURDERED victim? Just because someone is mentally ill does not mean they should get a free pass after killing someone.

[Iron100]

08:21 AM on 01/01/2012

he is getting a free pass because your beloved system and the prosecutors didn't do ther job correctly and broke the law

[Polly479]

06:10 PM on 12/28/2011

I hear and read these kinds of stories over and over and I still am appalled that our folks with a chronic, severe mental illness must commit such a heinous crime only to be locked up when their poor loved ones have tried for so long to get help for them only to be told there is nothing they can do.
I understand the frustration and the pain - I have been there and watched two of my children be taken to a mental hospital in handcuffs. I had to hire an attorney and have them taken from jail to a psychiatrist, who confirmed what I already knew. They did not belong in jail, they belonged in a hospital. That was many years ago and I have fought tooth and nail for them since, didn't care what I had to do or who I had to do it to!!
Thank God, they are more stable than they have been in years, at home with me where they belong. The mentally ill are so protected by law that we can't do one thing to help them until it is too late!
I applaud you for what you do!! We need to clone you ... only we would need more than a thousand clones! Thank you!!

[KDMac]

07:01 PM on 12/29/2011

. The mentally ill are so protected by law that we can't do one thing to help them until it is too late!

Truer words were never spoken.

[Polly479]

07:20 PM on 12/31/2011

Thank you, Sweetheart. It is good to have someone who understands. At times we feel as if we are the only one!

[Parade Keegan]

03:15 PM on 12/28/2011

Good article.

[June Conway Beeby]

11:19 AM on 12/28/2011

Surely, articles like this will inform the public about the torturous maze of finding appropriate treatment and protection for some seriously mentally ill people (SMI), particularly those who have committed terrible crimes while "off" the medication which could rid them of their uninhibited and dangerous actions.

To even consider releasing them from prison, untended, with no efficient program in place to ensure they take their medication when in the community is madness in itself.

We must all learn about the reality of some SMI, and protect everyone from suffering from its ravages, the afflicted individual plus society at large.

[KDMac]

07:07 PM on 12/29/2011

They're not allowed to force people to take their meds, it's a civil rights violation.

[Neil Reilly]

10:09 AM on 12/28/2011

What a disgrace and slap in the face to law enforcement this would be. Let him go so he can kill again and he will say he is crazy again and be put back out on the stree. If this man committed this crime crazy or not he should be locked up for life. Life period. Where is the justice for the police officers family.

[Polly479]

08:20 PM on 12/31/2011

There is justice for no one here.

[Louesa]

06:50 AM on 12/28/2011

Mental illness + police involvement = tragedy all across the country. A young man waqving a knife was just shot and killed by a police officer in the Tampa Bay area. In the same area this week, a police officer was just shot and killed by a mentally ill man. These scenarios repeat from coast to coast on a weekly basis. Americans have become so gun-happy that ANYBODY can purchase a gun at gun shows without checks; databases are not keep up to date by law enforcement; and desperate families pleading for treatment for a mentally ill loved one are left in the lurch until something terrible happens. Mandated treatment isn't a cure-all, but it certainly would help.

[Tama Bell]

12:04 AM on 12/28/2011

Thanks again, you tell my story about my son and in particular the Dutchess County Mental Health System with the NYS officials who continue to ignore and refrain from treating him, with each of these you report.

[Polly479]

08:17 PM on 12/31/2011

This is the story of many sons, many daughters, many mental health systems, state officials who can't see the trees for the forest (or is it the forest for the trees?)
Most people don't understand mental illness, most elected officials have no clue what severe, chronic mental illness is.
I have heard educated, intelligent people who should know better make false, misleading statements about the mentally ill.
I personally know a case manager whose son, suffering from a mental illness, lived alone, monitored by yet another case manager, who was stabbed to death when he came to check on him. His mother left her job and today is president of a local NAMI chapter.
He has been in a mental hospital, receiving treatment for close to 20 years now, has a garden, seems fairly content, with his medication managed and has made a life for himself. Without someone who cared, who understood, he may be languishing in torment in a prison till the day he died or, worse yet, released for a repeat performance.
My heart aches for the victim's family, yet our system so often fails the mentally ill, making one victim become two.
I know the man who killed his case manager. He should not have been allowed to live alone.
He was a kind, loving man who didn't choose to have schizophrenia, to hear and see demons.
Mental illness destroys not only an individual but entire families if left untreated.