News

The need for cooperation between lawyers, psychologists, and psychiatrists in conducting fitness and insanity evaluations will be the focus of a Northwestern University conference, “Effective Protocols for Fitness and Insanity Examinations: What Lawyers and Doctors Need to Know.”

Sponsored by Northwestern University School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic and Feinberg School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, the conference is free and open to the public and will take place from 2 - 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, 2003, at Northwestern University School of Law, 357 E. Chicago Ave.

The program will focus on the case study of a 7th Circuit Court of Appeals' opinion, Brown v. Stermes (2002), in which the court found that the defendant, a chronic schizophrenic sentenced to 30 years for robbery, received ineffective assistance of counsel because the public defenders assigned to his case never obtained his mental health records and so could not take them into account when preparing for trial or sentencing. The Bluhm Legal Clinic took the case on appeal. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the defendant's petition for habeas corpus after Illinois appellate courts and the federal district court denied relief.

“Northwestern faculty and students labored on this case for seven years to obtain relief for the client and to bring to the fore the need for individualized attention in the criminal justice system,” said conference organizer Thomas F. Geraghty, director of the Bluhm Legal Clinic and associate dean of clinical education at the School of Law. “In its decision, the court stressed the importance of thorough investigation and of sensitivity to mental health issues.”

Joining conference organizers, Geraghty and Stephen Robinson, director of Forensic Psychiatry at the Feinberg School of Medicine, in the presentation of the case study are Northwestern medical school faculty members Robert Hanlon and Daniel Yohanna.

Northwestern University School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic, named on its 30th anniversary in recognition of a gift from graduate Neil Bluhm, class of 1962, is nationally recognized for its effective representation of clients, for its institutional reform activities and for its contributions to scholarship in clinical teaching, legal ethics and the teaching of trial advocacy. The clinic’s objective is to improve the administration of justice while educating law students to become skilled, ethical and reform-minded legal professionals.

Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, named in February 2002 for a gift from the Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation, a Chicago philanthropic organization, has approximately 1,200 full-time faculty members and 700 full-time students, along with approximately 900 residents and fellows. With a long tradition of excellence in education and patient care, the medical school also is nationally recognized for its research in such areas as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and AIDS.

• Categories: