Foucha v. Louisiana
United States Supreme Court
504 U.S. 71 (1992)
Foucha (defendant) was found not guilty of aggravated burglary and illegal firearm discharge by reason of insanity and committed to a Louisiana mental institution. Though the institution's superintendent recommended his release, a court-appointed panel of doctors found him "too dangerous" to release based on his antisocial personality — not because he remained mentally ill. The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld denying his release, and Foucha sought Supreme Court review on due process and equal protection grounds.
Whether an individual institutionalized after being found not guilty by reason of insanity may continue to be confined once the state can no longer show he is both mentally ill and dangerous, based instead on a personality trait unrelated to treatable mental illness.