Ralph Tortorici & Frontline's A Crime Of Insanity.

This is part three of a series of posts on Ralph Tortorici. In 1994, Ralph Tortorici held a class hostage at the University at Albany. Tortorici suffered from delusions associated with his diagnosis of schizophrenia. One student was injured in the struggle to disarm him, and Ralph was convicted in 1996 of kidnapping, attempted murder and other felonies. On August 10, 1999, Ralph Tortorici committed suicide in the Sullivan County Correctional Facility.

As I said yesterday, Ralph Tortorici’s mental illness, imprisonment and suicide are of such significance that he has been included in a book released by Oxford University Press just two months ago. Just as important is the amount of time that PBS devoted to Ralph’s case in a Frontline show that aired in 2002, titled A Crime Of Insanity.

If you have the time and an interest in how the criminal justice system deals with mentally ill people, its worth reading the information provided by Frontline. If you don’t have the time, I will be commenting on some of the information over the next several days in a briefer fashion.