Student abstract from Prof. Mae Quinn's course:

Issues in the Law: Problem-Solving Courts Advocacy Program Seminar

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Whitney Quarles

South Carolina Mental Health Courts: Legislative Overreaction

The proliferation of mental health courts, a type of problem-solving court, has highlighted difficulties in discerning which offenses should be diversion-eligible. The horrific murder of Mary Lynn Witherspoon after her stalker was ordered to out-patient treatment by the Charleston County Mental Health Court led South Carolina to create a list of offenses which are not eligible for diversion to the mental health court. This paper will focus on South Carolina's Mary Lynn's Law and critique additions to it, some appropriate and others merely an emotional reaction which unnecessarily infringe on the rights of the mentally ill. In order to contextualize South Carolina's statute, I will also discuss other state statutes which address mental health courts, and the few which allow or mandate specific exclusions. Finally, I will suggest provisions that states should and should not adopt in order to prevent mentally ill offenders from perpetrating other crimes while under the supervision of mental health courts.

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