NCJ Number
86320
Date Published
1981
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The successful diminished-capacity defense of Dan White, who killed San Francisco mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk, is an example of how psychiatry imposes its own prejudices on the legal system to subvert moral values and justice.
Abstract
White had been informed that his political hopes had been destroyed by Moscone's refusal to reappoint him supervisor, a refusal in which Milk was thought to have had some influence. The morning after learning of this, White came to City Hall with a concealed gun and 10 extra bullets, entered through a window to avoid metal detectors at the door, shot Moscone five times, reloaded his gun, then shot Milk four times. To the psychiatrists testifying at the trial, this behavior evidenced diminished capacity to premeditate. Both the defense and the prosecution made White's behavior a subject of psychiatric evaluation under the assumption that such behavior by a 'good' man must have some roots in mental illness. A case could have also been made for White's behavior being a logical extension of his hostility toward homosexuals (Moscone was a supporter of homosexual rights and Milk was a homosexual) and his rage at being rendered politically powerless by two supporters of homosexual rights. Because of Dan White's background of respectability and the psychiatric establishment's established prejudice against homosexuals, the psychiatric witnesses insisted that Dan White's behavior not be viewed as evil or morally culpable but as a manifestation of diminished mental capacity. This is but another example of how psychiatry would absolve all criminals of moral and criminal responsibility and turn them into psychiatric patients.