PSYX 391
Thought Paper #2a
Topic: Applying Concepts to Real Criminal Cases
Read the attached article about Latisha Fisher, who was charged with one count of Second
Degree Murder for allegedly killing her 1-year-old son in a restaurant bathroom. In your
paper, please address the following questions:
1. Describe how the concept of Competency to Stand Trial might apply to her criminal
case, using the Dusky standard for competence that we discussed in class.
2. Discuss what Ms. Fisher would have to prove to the court if she pleads Not Guilty by
Reason of Insanity (New York uses the ALI test for insanity).
a. Include a discussion of what would likely happen to her if she is found NGRI
3. Assuming that she truly is seriously mentally ill, what do you think would be the
most “just” approach to handling Ms. Fisher’s case?
Please rely on class notes and readings to form your opinions. You do not need to use outside
sources for this assignment.
Paper Details:
• Due in class on Thursday 4/26. Any papers received after class ends on that day
(11:00 am) will be considered late and will lose 5 points per day they are late.
• Papers are worth 50 points.
• Papers should be 3-4 pages, double-spaced and 12-point font. The margins should
be 1” all around.
• Don’t forget to check your spelling and grammar! Having more than 3 spelling
and/or grammatical errors will result in points being deducted.
N.Y. / REGION
Woman Smothered Son, 1, in Manhattan
Restroom, Prosecutors Say
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. APRIL 8, 2015
Prosecutors say the mentally ill woman who was found last month in the restroom
of a Manhattan restaurant with her unconscious son had used her bare hands to
smother the 1-year-old.
The woman, Latisha Fisher, 35, was arraigned on a single count of seconddegree
murder on Wednesday. Her lawyer, Bryan Konoski, asked Judge Gilbert
Hong to order a psychological exam to determine if she was competent to stand
trial.
Ms. Fisher, who had been given a diagnosis of schizophrenia in the past, has
been held for observation in a psychiatric ward at Elmhurst Hospital Center in
Queens since soon after her arrest on March 30. The arraignment before Judge
Hong in Manhattan Criminal Court was done remotely with a closed-circuit video
camera.
Elizabeth Clerkin, an assistant district attorney, requested that Ms. Fisher be
held without bail. “This is a case where the defendant smothered her 20-month-old
son in the bathroom of a restaurant,” the prosecutor said.
Arguing against bail, Ms. Clerkin noted Ms. Fisher had been convicted of
stabbing her aunt during a disagreement in September 2011, but was allowed to
plead to a lesser charge and enter a program for mentally ill offenders rather than
go to prison.
Mr. Konoski said he would make an argument for bail at a later date. The
judge said Ms. Fisher would remain in state custody in the meantime.
According to the criminal complaint in the case, a witness discovered Ms.
Fisher in the bathroom of the 5 Boro Burger restaurant at 976 Avenue of Americas,
around 2:20 p.m. on March 30. She was sitting on the toilet, holding her son,
Gavriel Ortiz-Fisher, on her lap. The boy was foaming from the nose; his lips were
blue.
A short while later, Ms. Fisher told a paramedic from the Fire Department that
“the devil had made her ‘put him to sleep,’ ” the complaint said. She then made a
gesture, cupping her left hand over her right, to show how she had smothered the
child, the complaint said.
An hour later, Gavriel was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital Center.
Restaurant workers told the police Ms. Fisher had entered the restaurant with
her baby and walked directly into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. After
she did not re-emerge, a worker used a master key to enter. The worker tried to
revive the boy with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the chief medical examiner’s office, said that
the child’s body was examined last week but that some tests had not been
completed; the cause and manner of death have yet to be determined.
According to records and interviews with relatives, Ms. Fisher had a troubled
past before Gavriel was born. As a youth, she set fire to her mother’s sleeping
boyfriend. More recently, she poured burning oil on a boyfriend’s head during a
breakup, was hospitalized after a suicide attempt and stabbed her aunt.
During a three-month incarceration at Rikers in 2011, Ms. Fisher was
classified as seriously mentally ill, with paranoid schizophrenia. She told clinicians
she had heard voices telling her to commit suicide and, later, to kill her aunt.
Under a plea bargain with the Manhattan district attorney, she received two
years of treatment and antipsychotic medication at an alternative-to-incarceration
program. Her condition improved significantly while she was with the program
and she was attentive to her son when he was born, her relatives said. But in recent
months her mental state had again deteriorated.
Correction: April 8, 2015
An earlier version of this article misstated what happened in court on Wednesday
in the case of Latisha Fisher, who is accused of killing her son Gavriel OrtizFisher.
She was arraigned on a single count of second-degree murder; she did not
enter a plea to the charge. The error was repeated in the headline and a
summary.
A version of this article appears in print on April 9, 2015, on Page A24 of the New York edition with the
headline: Officials Say Mother Smothered Boy, 1, in Restroom.
© 2017 The New York Times Company
