The film we watched was a frontline documentary about the tragic case of Ralph Tortorici called A Case of Insanity. On December 14, 1994, Ralph entered a conference room with a rifle and a hunting knife, taking the entire class hostage. He demanded to speak to President Clinton and threatened to kill the hostages if they did not comply with his demands. Ralph was calm towards the students being held hostage and asked people outside to bring them food. Jason McEnaney, 19, attempted to wrestle the rifle out of Ralph's hands, but this caused the rifle to go off and he was shot in the genital area. Several students attacked Ralph and held him until police came in and arrested him. Ralph was taken to jail on 14 counts of aggravated assault. His trial took place on January 3, 1996, and Ralph announced that he would not be present at his trial. It was stated that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and also had traces of cocaine in his system. Although Ralph's attorneys told the 12 jurors that Ralph was delusional, he suffered from a mental illness. After watching this movie, I felt that the court did not give Ralph Tortorici a fair trial. First, Ralph had demonstrated a history of mental illness for most of his life and nothing was done to correct his illness, then the judge also decided to continue the trial despite the evidence of the evaluation of the psychiatrist that Ralph was clearly not mentally stable and he had to be hospitalized, and finally Ralph received an unfair and cruel punishment which led to his suicide due to lack of help for his mental illness. Through his history of illness, lack of proper trial and lack of support for his paranoid schizophrenia demonstrates that Ralph Torto...... middle of paper ...... sent to a mental institution. the trial was unfair. Through his history of anger and isolation which later led to serious illness, the lack of a proper trial because the prosecution should not have gone ahead after there was clear evidence of Ralph's unstable mental health and lack of support for his paranoia. Schizophrenia are all factors that demonstrate why Ralph suffered an unfair trial. References A case of insanity. (nd). PBS. Retrieved March 10, 2014 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sAdvances in Psychiatric Treatment (2006) 12: 239-248doi: 10.1192/apt.12.4.239 Defining and assessing competence to undergo trial. (February 23, 2004). Forensic skills. Accessed March 10, 2014, from http://forensicpsychiatry.stanford.edu/Files/Criminal%20Forensics/Competency.2.pdf