592
Stevens, J., dissenting
the refusal to give the instruction and the absence of any identifiable countervailing harm that may result from giving it.
The Court also contends that jurors today are more familiar with the consequences of a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity than they were in 1957 when Lyles was decided. Ante, at 584, n. 9. No one has suggested, however, that the level of understanding even approximates that of the conventional choice between "guilty" and "not guilty." Indeed, one recent study concluded that "the public overestimates the extent to which insanity acquittees are released upon acquittal and underestimates the extent to which they are hospitalized as well as the length of confinement of insanity acquittees who are sent to mental hospitals." 2 As long as significant numbers of potential jurors believe that an insanity acquittee will be released at once, the instruction serves a critical purpose. Yet even if, as the Court seems prepared to assume, all jurors are already knowledgeable about the issue, surely telling them what they already know can do no harm.
An increasing number of States that have considered the question endorses use of the instruction,3 as has the American Bar Association.4 Judge Newman's succinct assessment
2 Silver, Cirincione, and Steadman, Demythologizing Inaccurate Perceptions of the Insanity Defense, 18 Law and Human Behavior 63, 68 (Feb. 1994).
3 See, e. g., Erdman v. State, 315 Md. 46, 553 A. 2d 244 (1989); State v. Shickles, 760 P. 2d 291 (Utah 1988); People v. Young, 189 Cal. App. 3d 891, 234 Cal. Rptr. 819 (1987); People v. Thomson, 197 Colo. 232, 591 P. 2d 1031 (1979); Commonwealth v. Mulgrew, 475 Pa. 271, 380 A. 2d 349 (1977); Roberts v. State, 335 So. 2d 285 (Fla. 1976); Commonwealth v. Mutina, 366 Mass. 810, 323 N. E. 2d 294 (1975); State v. Babin, 319 So. 2d 367 (La. 1975). See also Fleming, Instructions in State Criminal Case in Which Defendant Pleads Insanity as to Hospital Confinement in Event of Acquittal, 81 A. L. R. 4th 659, 667 (1990) (noting "an apparent trend toward requiring or authorizing a jury instruction on the legal consequences of an insanity acquittal").
4 ABA Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards § 7-6.8 (1989).
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