JUDGEMENTS | Not guilty by virtue of mental illness

A quiet suburb. A brutal murder.

What happens when someone kills - but isn’t sane enough to be found guilty?

Marita Cunningham was charged with murdering 81-year-old May Richie in 2016.

A neighbour discovered May dead inside her apartment, her body covered in pillows and shopping bags. An autopsy found she’d died by asphyxiation and had been beaten with her own walking cane.

Marita was arrested trying to flee the scene.

Witnesses described Marita’s unsettling behaviour earlier that day, including outbursts in public, talking to herself, and showing up at her ex’s apartment uninvited.

The court had to decide whether Marita was guilty of murder – or not guilty by virtue of mental illness.

Should someone who kills, but genuinely doesn’t know reality from delusion, be found guilty of murder?

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