Law & psychiatry: facilitating testimony of people with mental illness

Persons with mental illness may face particular challenges when asked to testify at criminal trials. Mental illness, along with the pressures of testifying, may prevent them from testifying or may affect their testimony. This column discusses laws that, in certain circumstances, permit litigants to use out-of-court statements made by people with mental disorders as a substitute for in-court testimony; two U.S. Supreme Court cases that placed substantial limits on the use of out-of-court statements under these laws; and in light of these limits, alternatives that would permit use of out-of-court statements.