"ĭid the State prove the mental element of the crimes of attempted deliberate homicide and aggravated burglary beyond a reasonable doubt? The court ordered him committed to the custody of the Montana Department of Institutions "for placement in a facility deemed appropriate to need for treatment and society's need for protection from. The court found Cowan guilty as charged.Īt Cowan's sentencing hearing, the court heard argument about whether he should be confined in a prison or a mental institution. Mental health professionals testified for both Cowan and the State on this issue. He asserts that he was in an acute psychotic episode at the time of the attack and that he was under the delusion that the victim was a robot, not a human being. At his bench trial, he argued that he did not act deliberately in committing these offenses.
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Prior to trial, he was evaluated by psychiatrists and found competent to stand trial.Ĭowan waived his right to a jury trial. She survived, despite injuries including a punctured lung, broken ribs, a broken scapula, a dislocated shoulder, and a skull fracture.Ĭowan has been diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, a serious mental disorder. The victim was found semi-conscious on the floor of her kitchen. He had in his possession a backpack containing some of the victim's belongings. Sheriff's deputies responding to the victim's phone call apprehended Cowan at the Work Center. She called "911" and locked her doors before Cowan again broke in and assaulted her with a tree-planting tool called a hodag. When the occupant of the cabin came home on the evening of the 24th, it was clear to her that someone had been in her cabin eating her food, watching her television, and generally making himself at home. On April 23 or 24, 1990, Joe Junior Cowan broke into a United States Forest Service cabin at the Lolo Work Center, eighteen miles west of Lolo, Montana. Does sentencing and confining Cowan to prison violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution because of his mental condition?
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Do the Montana statutes governing the presentation of evidence of mental disease or defect in effect establish a conclusive or unrebuttable presumption of criminal intent in contravention of the doctrine enunciated in Sandstrom v. Did the State prove the mental element of the crimes of attempted deliberate homicide and aggravated burglary beyond a reasonable doubt?Ģ. The District Court for the Fourth Judicial District, Missoula County, sitting as the trier of fact, convicted Joe Junior Cowan of aggravated burglary and attempted deliberate homicide.