Man not guilty by reason of insanity for trying to rape woman in toilet on JAL flight

A hearing will determine whether Tanouye is dangerous.

Nah

Find him a nice, safe institution where he can be treated and society can be safe from him.

Find him a nice, safe institution where he can be treated

The word on the street is that there is one in North Carolina...

Tanouye forced his way into a bathroom and attempted to sexually assault a woman

Tanouye assaulted an inmate at Honolulu Federal Detention Center

A hearing will determine whether Tanouye is dangerous.

O_o

those toilets are barely large enough for one person. One wonders how on earth he got in with her?

Shouldn't that be, guilty by insanity?

@Disillusioned

Here, here!

" A hearing will determine whether Tanouye is dangerous. "

That sentence floored me.

Shouldn't that be, guilty by insanity?

No, as the insanity removes the guilt.

Shouldn't that be, guilty by insanity?

I don't think you can be found guilty by insanity. I think you can only use the insanity plea as a case for innocence unfortunately. However don't quote me on that, I'm not an expert on American laws and court rulings.

I'm sorry for the woman who this happened to, this can be a tough ruling for her and her family. I wish the best for her and hope she can come to grips with how things happened

Zap the insanity out of him with a good dose of electrotherapy.

Wikipedia notes,

Once such a (insanity) verdict is handed down, the defendant has the burden of proof of showing that his release would not create a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person or serious damage of property of another due to a present mental disease or defect.Because of the difficulty in proving such a thing, in some cases, defendants found not guilty only by reason of insanity serve more time in a mental hospital than they would have served in prison had they been found guilty. A risk panel is typically tasked with making such assessments.

The judgement sounds fair to me. He'll be kept comfortable and be given the care he needs for a long, long time.

Wow! All you wanna-be park bench lawyers jumping in to give their Wikipedia's worth of explanations for the insanity law failed to fully understand my previous post. He is guilty of being insane!

It's not just semantics, Disillusioned. To be found guilty, one must be put through a trial involving a judge and, often, a jury. Being found not culpable due to insanity bypasses the legal system; it is determined solely by doctors. This is important because a judge must sentence a convicted person to a term of certain length, whereas confinement due to insanity can be indeterminate.

So, no, he has not been found guilty; he has been judged insane.

Insanity is not a crime; one cannot therefore be guilty of it.

Uh, he is obviously a danger to society.

Poor mother. I can't imagine what she had to go through when he was growing up.

LagunaFEB. 25, 2016 - 04:11PM JST It's not just semantics, Disillusioned. To be found guilty, one must be put through a trial involving a judge and, often, a jury. Being found not culpable due to insanity bypasses the legal system;

No, it doesn't. The judge permits a psychiatric evaluation (perhaps even orders it) and then rules on the outcome of the evaluation, as reported in this very article:

A man who tried to rape a woman in the bathroom of a Japan Airlines flight is not guilty by reason of insanity, a judge ruled at a brief trial Wednesday.

The principle of not guilty by insanity is that to be guilty of a crime, you must on a basic level be aware of and capable of controlling your actions. For example, if you have Tourette's Syndrome, I can't arrest you if you should be compelled to utter a swear in church (not that Tourette's is "insanity" or people get arrested for swearing in church, this is just to show the principle.) The ruling is still part of the legal system, it's just that the legal system decided that a crime has not truly been committed because there is no guilty mind to prosecute.

They had to open the door by removing screws from its hinges

That must have taken some time... :-(

Well done to the girl for reporting it!!

@Disillusioned - To say guilty by insanity would mean every other mental illness should be considered a form of criminal intent as well.

Thanks, katsu, but my point stands: the judge ruled basically to dismiss the case based on advice he received from doctors and instead turned the lad over to indefinite psychiatric care.

I think any captain who turns a plane around and hugely inconveniences, or worse, all the other innocent passengers because of the bad behavior of some total jerk, who could instead be restrained by nylon handcuffs for the duration of the scheduled flight, and then delivered to authorities, is guilty of extreme inconsideration. But maybe there's some crazy protocol or law that obligates him or her to do it.

LagunaFEB. 25, 2016 - 06:50PM JST Thanks, katsu, but my point stands: the judge ruled basically to dismiss the case based on advice he received from doctors and instead turned the lad over to indefinite psychiatric care.

No, he ruled to dismiss the case based on evidence he received from doctors. The evidence being that a crime was not committed. The same way the judge can rule to dismiss a case based on evidence from any other profession that shows a crime was not committed. I know of no criminal justice system in any country that bans rulings based on evidence submitted by people of particular professions. Doctors' evidence is certainly taken into account when judges rule that a crime did occur. Presumably you have no problem with doctors submitting autopsies as evidence, so it strains credibility to suggest they shouldn't submit evidence to say a crime didn't occur.

Totally agree, Katsu-san. He was not found guilty but instead was remanded to psychiatric care.

If he had made it to Japan it would be 20 years in the brig!

kurisupisu: "If he had made it to Japan it would be 20 years in the brig!"

Not if he were Japanese. It'd be called "shouga nai".

And this time we KNOW the person is mentally ill, and not just assuming it instead of them being pure evil. If he's only going to be locked up in a psychiatric ward and not imprisoned, I hope the door is shut tight. Obviously he is a danger to society.

A man who tried to rape a woman in the bathroom of a Japan Airlines flight is not guilty by reason of insanity, a judge ruled at a brief trial Wednesday.

Hardly any consolation as you get locked up anyway.

Thank goodness he didn't go into the cockpit and try to rape the pilot; then he could have brought the plane down!

The guy still sounds dangerous.... he needs a mental health facility with strong bars.

People find this person is guilty even though there is proof of mental illness. Mother kills herself and her child and protect her by saying she has a mental illness and should not be found guilty... The logic of some Japan Today members.

Queen Victoria was the apparently the first to be annoyed by the legal term, 'not guilty by reason of insanity'. After the eighth attempt to kill or hurt her (in 1882), she said the defendant was definitely guilty but insane.

Oh what? That's utter bollox. Not exactly a comfort for the poor woman is it?

Lock him up with a bunch of other guys. Rapists/molesters are popular in prison.

A hearing will determine whether Tanouye is dangerous.

Wait, I thought it was JAPAN that had to have hearings to determine the obvious?

ThePBot Lock him up with a bunch of other guys. Rapists/molesters are popular in prison. OK are you one of those people that say mothers that kill their child then try to kill themselves and then claim that they should be given help for Mental Illness or are you the kind of person who ignores mental illness especially when there is proof of it and say he deserves to be in prison?

Why the hell was he allowed on the plane without better supervision if he is certified insane.

Airliners operating internattionally in and out of U.S. are mandated to ask passengers if you are transporting any form of drugs. Don't see this slipping by and being unnoticed by the crew staff of not pointing it out on their manifest. This being said, it is likely the mother either did not answer adequately or oversighted to show the certification. Either case, this could have been prevented if protocol was followed.

Poor guy. It can't be helped. Mental illness is a disease that causes people to unwillingly do things they normally would not. My prayers go out to this man, hope he gets the help he so sorely needs.

Thank goodness he didn't go into the cockpit and try to rape the pilot; then he could have brought the plane down!

Thank you! The laughing I did from this cleared my sinuses.