瘋癲與審判：死刑案件中的精神障礙被告

Madness and Trial: Defendants with Mental Disabilities in Death Penalty Cases

在本文中，筆者藉由近期承辦的數件精障者殺人案，嘗試分析其審理過程與判決結果，分別由法院如何看待此類精障者接受審判的能力（瘋癲的程度？），如何藉由精神鑑定以判斷其犯案時的精神狀態或責任能力（是否真的瘋癲？），以及在判決中如何決定適當的處理方式，禁閉、治療、抑或是死刑（為何瘋癲？），審視此類死刑案件審判過程是否符合正當法律程序的保障？此類精障被告在我國是否承受較高的死刑風險？這文章並非精緻的學術性研究，毋寧是一位刑事案件辯護人在多次經辦精障者重大刑事案件的審判後，省思在我國民眾頗引以為傲的法治文化之下，我們究竟應如何對所謂瘋癲者進行審判。

This essay analyses recent death penalty cases where the defendant suffers from a mental disability, how the court determines the defendant’s competence to stand trial, how it interprets the result of psychiatric assessments and how it metes out an appropriate punishment, therapy or treatment. The author claims that, due to the complexity of the human mind and way of thinking, judges and other practitioners in court face the limitations of modern psychiatry and of the trial system if they are eager to determine the defendant’s mental status and life precisely. Human beings are not God. Neither judges nor psychiatrists are able to avoid the limitations of the investigation, the possibility of ambiguity or the arbitrary deprivation of life in death penalty cases.