The following is an excerpt from Dr. Elliot Atkins and Joshua Shields chapter on Working with the Expert: From the Perspective of Experts

The public’s awareness and interest in mental health has grown considerably in the past decade. Cultural artifacts focused on mental health and mental disabilities abound: literature, television shows, film, digital media, social media, and so on. This recent growth of media content often attempts to reveal the perspective of those who suffer from mental illness and portray the perspective of those who treat them.

Whether through an empathetic lens that seeks to educate or one of morbid curiosity (e.g., the rise of “true crime” podcasts), it isn’t difficult to find people fervently discussing mental illness in their daily lives. Socio-political events, global pandemics, and the forms of media mentioned earlier are all factors that have led to an increased awareness regarding the effects of mental health and how to treat those with mental health issues. While not universal, in the United States there is a trending societal shift in which mental disabilities, and those suffering from them, are viewed in a more compassionate and considerate

manner. Furthermore, the legal system has recently fallen under considerable scrutiny for perceived failings in dealing with inequality, including unequal treatment of those with mental disabilities. With these factors in mind, the importance of accurately identifying and understanding a client’s mental disability has never been as powerful, or as important, as it is today.

Processing and conceptualizing the effects of a potential lifetime of mental disability with a client can be a daunting task. One must take into consideration how the defendant’s mental illness or intellectual/developmental disability may have impacted their life prior to, during, and after the offense. It is in this domain that it is recommended the attorney employ a forensic mental health professional. This professional will investigate, conceptualize, and advise on the mental illness of the client, and how that conceptualization may be used in an effective defense for the client.

Robert Roberson’s Death Penalty Case Shows How Justice System Fails People With Autism

This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters.

Robert Roberson, who faces execution in Texas on Oct. 17, is the latest death row prisoner to see a glossy campaign to save his life. He was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis in 2002 on a theory of “shaken baby syndrome.” A growing chorus, from the lead detective in his case to novelist John Grisham, is arguing that he is innocent and Curtis’ death, while a tragedy, was not a crime. He’d be the first person ever executed based on shaken baby syndrome, even as the diagnosis faces growing scrutiny in the courts.

But another fact about Roberson deserves more attention to make sense of his story — his diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

Courts launch novel program for mentally ill defendants

The New Mexico court system is launching four pilot programs intended to divert people with serious mental illness into treatment who otherwise would face prosecution for minor crimes.

Candidates for the program are people who previously have had criminal charges dismissed because they were found incompetent to stand trial.

“This is the first time we’re doing anything with this group of individuals,” New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Briana Zamora said of criminal defendants with severe mental illness.

“It will be challenging because they are high need,” she said. “But just being complacent and doing nothing is no longer an option.”

Federal court oversight of Oregon State Hospital enters new phase

U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson is pressing all sides involved in decades-old civil rights litigation to pursue creative solutions, and several lawyers in the case call for further action by the state to beef up services for people experiencing mental illness.

Oregon’s lack of behavioral health treatment beds continues to provide new and expanding employment for lawyers, as long-running litigation around the Oregon State Hospital increasingly has put a federal court in charge of managing its day-to-day operations.

Based on a lawsuit filed 22 years ago, the recently revived court standoff around the facility keeps giving birth to new litigation offspring in state and federal court.

'The Fifth Branch' follows the burgeoning world of alternative crisis response teams

An excerpt from "The Fifth Branch," a three-part series by Tradeoffs and The Marshall Project examining how Durham's alternative crisis response program keeps its unarmed responders safe.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

According to a Washington Post database, police officers in the U.S. have shot and killed 91 people who were in the midst of a mental health crisis this year alone. One in 5 people killed by the police in the last decade - 1,968 people - were experiencing a mental health crisis, and many others have been assaulted by police, arrested or hospitalized against their will. And this has all fueled a movement. More than a hundred cities, including many of the country's largest - Denver, Chicago, Houston, New York - have launched what are called alternative crisis response programs. Instead of armed police, social workers and EMTs now handle 911 calls involving mental illness, addiction or suicidal thoughts.

How a Leading Chain of Psychiatric Hospitals Traps Patients

Acadia Healthcare is one of America’s largest chains of psychiatric hospitals. Since the pandemic exacerbated a national mental health crisis, the company’s revenue has soared. Its stock price has more than doubled.

But a New York Times investigation found that some of that success was built on a disturbing practice: Acadia has lured patients into its facilities and held them against their will, even when detaining them was not medically necessary.

In at least 12 of the 19 states where Acadia operates psychiatric hospitals, dozens of patients, employees and police officers have alerted the authorities that the company was detaining people in ways that violated the law, according to records reviewed by The Times. In some cases, judges have intervened to force Acadia to release patients.

Tom Girardi found guilty of wire fraud: ‘It wasn’t a hard decision,’ juror says

A federal court jury in Los Angeles found Tom Girardi, once a legal titan and now a disgraced former attorney, guilty Tuesday of wire fraud for leading a years long scheme in which he embezzled tens of millions of dollars.

The verdict concluded a 13-day trial in which prosecutors elicited emotional testimony from former clients, including a burn victim and a widow whose husband died in a boating accident, employees of the now-closed law firm Girardi Keese and an outside attorney who struggled to get a woman the settlement money she’d been granted.

As clients went unpaid, prosecutors told the jury, Girardi spent money on private jets, country clubs and the entertainment career of his now-estranged wife, Erika Girardi, a star of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”