Nick Reiner's Legal Road Ahead — Three Battles, One Outcome, No Way Home

Today we're breaking down everything you need to know about what comes next in the Nick Reiner case.

Alan Jackson quit as Nick's attorney this morning — but not before delivering a statement that sounded more like a closing argument than a goodbye: "Nick Reiner is NOT guilty of murder under California law. Print that." Three weeks of investigation. Ten sealed subpoenas. And now he's gone.

Here's what that statement actually means. California's insanity defense works in two phases. First, the jury decides guilt based on the evidence. Then — if guilty — a second trial determines whether the defendant was legally insane at the time of the crime. That's where Jackson's words apply. Under the M'Naghten Rule, the defense must prove Nick couldn't understand what he was doing or couldn't tell right from wrong at the exact moment of the killings. Less than one percent of defendants plead insanity. Only about a quarter succeed.

Nick is now represented by Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene, who met him for approximately thirty seconds before the hearing. But the LA County Public Defender's Office has one of the best capital case records in the country — between 2006 and 2015, only one of their clients was sentenced to death out of thirty appeals.

Here's what most people miss: even if the insanity defense works, Nick doesn't walk free. He goes to a state psychiatric hospital — potentially for life. Facilities where the DOJ found civil rights violations and patient murders.

The insanity defense isn't an escape hatch. It's a different kind of cage. And whether Nick goes to prison or Patton State Hospital, he's not coming back.

#NickReiner #RobReiner #TrueCrimeToday #InsanityDefense #CaliforniaLaw #MurderCase #AlanJackson #PublicDefender #CriminalJustice #ReinerCase

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