After being shot by Orlando police officers a year ago, Steffan Haskins, a man from Orlando, was given release from incarceration on bond, which allowed him to receive mental health therapy at the Veterans Affairs hospital as he awaited trial.
The bond release allowed him to undergo treatment at the VA. Haskins could have been sentenced to prison if but for the fact that his attorney successfully cited a state law that is rarely used.
Haskins was finally found not guilty by reason of insanity following a bench trial, and the reasoning for this decision was based on a legal clause that is known as Rule 3.217.
This verdict was supported by an Orange County court.
According to the records, this Florida law that allows for an insanity verdict has been successfully implemented in only 15 criminal court cases that have been scheduled for trial in Orange-Osceola County over the past nearly three years.
