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FRONTLINE: A CRIME OF INSANITY (TV)

Summary

One in this documentary series. This program, narrated by Will Lyman, explores the 1990s criminal case against New Yorker Ralph Tortorici. The story begins on December 14, 1994, when 26-year-old Tortorici, armed with a knife and a rifle, took a classroom of students hostage on the Albany campus of SUNY and ended up seriously injuring one Jason McInheney before being arrested, ranting about government conspiracies all the while. Tortorici's father Robert describes his shock at seeing his son on television, and Tortorici was eventually deemed competent to stand trial, though defense attorney Peter Lynch notes that there is an "extremely low threshold" for competency. Chief Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Wiest appointed two prosecutors, Cindy Preiser and Cheryl Coleman, to develop a rebuttal to Lynch's insanity defense and prove that Tortorici was legally responsible for his actions. Tortorici's brother Matthew, a corrections officer at the prison in which Ralph was held, describes Ralph's clearly schizophrenic behavior in jail, though adds that he was "a straight arrow" until the age of fifteen, when he began talking about police conspiracies against him, convinced that there were computer chips implanted in his body.

Lynch asserted that Tortorici was "acutely psychotic" during the hostage situation, and Coleman found herself unable to locate a psychiatric expert who would testify to the contrary. Eventually she and Preiser requested to plead Tortorici out, but Wiest urged them to continue with a jury trial, and Coleman found an expert witness, Dr. Lawrence Siegel, at the eleventh hour. Coleman and Siegel were startled when they met with Tortorici face-to-face, however, realizing immediately that he was indeed severely mentally ill and not malingering. Siegel reported that he was not, in fact, competent to stand trial, but as he was meant to evaluate Tortorici's state of mind during the crime only, Judge Lawrence Rosen overruled his findings, adding that he did not want to delay the process any further. Coleman was sure that they had no chance of winning, but Wiest instructed her to go ahead with the trial and attack the defense's claims in a "kamikaze mission." The trial began in January 1996, and everyone was surprised when Tortorici announced that he would not appear in court as a defendant despite Lynch's repeated pleas. McInheney took the stand and offered such harrowing testimony about the incident and his injuries that one juror passed out, and a number of other witnesses, including four psychiatrists and Tortorici's own grandmother, gave vivid descriptions of Tortorici's long history of mental illness.

The prosecution, however, pointed out that Tortorici's actions in the classroom were "logical and organized," and Coleman admits that she and Preiser were willing to do "whatever worked" to convince the jury of his guilt. They revealed that defense witness Dr. Zvi Klopott had offered "stereotypical" psychiatric defenses of accused killers in the past in order to make him seem unreliable, and Coleman eventually delivered a rousing closing argument, declaring that Tortorici's actions were calculated and worthy of punishment. She and Preiser were shocked when the jury came back with a verdict within an hour and found Tortorici guilty on all charges, and Lynch notes that the jurors could not empathize with him because of his absence from the courtroom. Wiest commended Colemand and Preiser for their work, and when Tortorici was sentenced a month later, he delivered a highly paranoid and anti-Semitic rant to the courtroom before receiving the maximum sentence of 20-47 years at the Sullivan Correctional Facility.

Tortorici attempted suicide after three weeks in solitary confinement at Sullivan and eventually spent extended periods of time at a psychiatric facility before returning to prison. An appeal was filed and rejected, and though his family was told that he was "doing well," Tortorici hanged himself in August 1999. Coleman describes her emotions at hearing of Tortorici's death, explaining that she herself had lost a child in the interim and developed strongly different feelings about the case. Wiest states that justice was served for McInheney, but Coleman muses that she was "trained to win" rather than to do the morally right thing and now regrets her involvement with the case, knowing that Tortorici should not have been found guilty. Coleman later left the D.A.'s office and became a judge in the Albany City Court, calling the Tortorici case a "wake-up call." Commercials deleted.

Details

  • NETWORK: PBS
  • DATE: October 17, 2002 9:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:51:08
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: B:74692
  • GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/Documentaries; Education/Information; Insanity - Jurisprudence
  • SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1983-
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Michael Sullivan … Executive Producer
  • David Fanning … Executive Producer
  • Robin Parmelee … Coordinating Producer
  • Ofra Bikel … Senior Producer
  • Sharon Tiller … Senior Producer
  • Karen O'Connor … Producer
  • Sarah Moughty … Producer
  • Kimberly Tabor … Producer
  • David Murdock … Producer, Writer
  • Miri Navasky … Producer, Writer
  • Williams/Biondo Music … Music by
  • Will Lyman … Narrator
  • Robert Tortorici … Interviewee
  • Larry Rosen … Interviewee
  • Cheryl Coleman … Interviewee
  • Lawrence Wiest … Interviewee
  • Matthew Tortorici … Interviewee
  • Peter Lynch … Interviewee
  • Lawrence Siegel … Interviewee
  • Zvi Klopott … Interviewee
  • Jason McIneney
  • Cindy Preiser
  • Ralph Tortorici