The Delusional Tenant

The Defendant suffered from a serious psychotic illness. He entered another man's apartment while the resident was away — but he was not there to steal in any ordinary sense. Gripped by a delusion, the Defendant genuinely believed the apartment was his own home. He put on the resident's clothes, cooked and ate the resident's food, and rearranged the furniture to his liking, settling in as though he owned the place. When police arrived they found him living there, and he was charged with burglary — a crime that requires entering with the intent to commit theft or another felony inside. At trial the judge refused to let the Defendant introduce psychiatric evidence of his delusion, because that same evidence also tended to show he was legally insane.