Charles L. Meach

Charles L. Meach, III (1948–2004) was a mentally ill American murderer who killed five people in Alaska.

He was born in Traverse City, Michigan, to a mother who battled with schizophrenia. He left home at sixteen to travel and accumulated a long record of minor crimes.[1]

He made his way to Anchorage, Alaska, and in 1973 he beat 22-year-old Robert Johnson who worked as a grocery clerk to death in Earthquake Park.[1] He was charged with murder and found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a mental hospital in California. In 1980 psychiatrists decided that his illness was in remission and he was returned to Alaska under the supervision of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. On May 3, 1982, he shot four teenagers to death in Russian Jack Springs Park; two 19-year-old boys while robbing their campsite and two 16-year-old girls who came to investigate the gunshots.[2][3] He confessed to the killings when confronted and was charged.[4] He again pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but was convicted and sentenced to 396 years in prison without the possibility of parole — the longest sentence in the state's history.[5]

In response to the shootings, the Alaska Legislature revised the criminal statutes on the sentencing of the mentally ill, providing for a new verdict "guilty, but mentally ill" where the convicted will serve their time in a mental institution until deemed healthy, then be transferred to prison for the rest of their sentence. This revision did not apply to Meach's trial, though.[2] The legislature also narrowed the definition of insanity and tightened the burden of proof for the basic insanity defense. This resulted in Alaska having one of the most strict conditions for the insanity defense of all the US states.[6]

He died of natural causes on December 9, 2004 in the Cook Inlet jail.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 Brennan, Tom. Murder at 40 Below: True Crime Stories from Alaska. Epicenter Press, 2001.
  2. 1 2 Wallace Turner (June 22, 1982). "New law on insanity plea stirs dispute in Alaska". New York Times.
  3. ↑ Sheila Toomey (1990). "MURDERS CAUSED DEEP PUBLIC, PRIVATE CHANGES". Anchorage Daily News.
  4. ↑ "Mental patient admits shootings". The Phoenix, 5/8/1982.
  5. ↑ "Multiple Murders Shake Alaska's Idyllic Linage". Palm Beach Post, Mar 31, 1983.
  6. ↑ DeBusk, Suzan E. "Alaska's Insanity Defense and the Guilty but Mentally Ill Verdict." Alaska L. Rev. 4 (1987): 171.
  7. ↑ Shelia Toomey (December 10, 2004). "Murderer dies in city jail cell". Anchorage Daily News.
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