Girmay Ruling May Affect Use Of Insanity Defense
Dublin Core
Title
Girmay Ruling May Affect Use Of Insanity Defense
Subject
New Hampshire
Courts
Criminal courts--United States
Description
Haile Selassie Girmay is a man accused of murdering two Dartmouth College students. He may use insanity as a defense, but that defense may be impacted by a ruling from Judge Peter Smith. Smith found that Girmay's taped confession will be permissible in court. This is despite the fact that Girmay may not have understood his rights during his confession. The suspect's insanity defense may prove difficult because the tape indicates that Girmay had doubts about the killings. A successful insanity defense must prove that the defendant was not in a proper state of mind, which the tape undermines.
Creator
Strohmeyer, Sarah
Source
Valley News
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1992-12-10
Rights
The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source.
Format
2 JPGs
300 DPI
Language
English
Coverage
New Hampshire
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
NORTH HAVERHILL- Haile Selassie Girmay, an Ethiopian man accused of murdering two Dartmouth College graduate students last year, may use an insanity defense when his trial begins in February.
But that defense likely would be affected by a ruling issued yesterday that Girmay's taped confession to police can be used as evidence at his trial.
Grafton County Superior Court Judge Peter W. Smith ruled yesterday that the two-hour recorded interview- in which Girmay, 33, confesses to killing the women and states how and why he did it- is admissible, despite defense protests that he didn't understand his rights as a suspect.
The ruling will certainly affect how each side presents its case, especially since Girmay indicates on the tape that he had doubts about killing the women. To prove insanity, a defendant must show that he was not in a state of mind to appreciate that what he was doing was criminal.
"The most widely used test is the inability to distinguish right from wrong," said Michael Mello, a criminal-law professor at Vermont Law School.
Selamawit Tsehaye, who had been engaged to marry Girmay, and Trhas Berhe, her roommate, were discovered dead from ax wounds in their Summer Street apartment in Hanover on June 17, 1991. Screams from the apartment had prompted neighbors to call police, and when officers arrived, Girmay answered the door.
According to police testimony given during a recent court hearing, Girmay shook hands with police at the door and said, "I killed them. I killed them both. I killed them both with an ax."
It was not that statement, though, that Girmay's lawyers wanted suppressed. Rather, it was what he said to police late that day that public defenders George Ostler and James Moir did not want the jury to hear.
Girmay says in that interview that he bought the ax about three days before the women were killed. He says he bought it on a whim shortly after Tsehaye told him she did not want to marry him after all. And he says on the tape that on the morning of June 17, he hesitated, prayed and waited in the early morning hours before killing the two women.
Girmay, a former geophysics graduate student at Uppsala University in Sweden, has been housed in the Secure Psychiatric Unit of the New Hampshire State Prison since June of this year- a year after the homicides. He has been undergoing treatment with psychotropic drugs.
"He was transferred to the unit for treatment of paranoid delusions which manifested themselves while he was housed at the (Grafton) county jail," his lawyers stated in court records. Moir and Ostler also state in court records that they plan to pursue the insanity defense.
Neither Girmay's lawyers nor Assistant New Hampshire Attorneys General Mark Zuckerman and John A. Stephen would discuss how the insanity defense will be affected by use of the taped confession.
"It's an important piece of evidence that can be presented to the jury so they will get a complete picture as to what happened," was the only thing Zuckerman would say.
Under New Hampshire law, an insanity defense is known as an "affirmative defense," meaning that the defense must establish by a preponderance of evidence that the defendant was insane. It means the defense will present its case first at the trial. Normally, it is up to the state to carry the burden of proof, and the prosecution's case comes first.
But there are no set standards in New Hampshire for determining what constitutes a successful insanity defense. Lawyers preparing such a defense look to a 1985 state Supreme Court ruling that says the defense must prove that a defendant is mentally ill and the crime is a product of that illness.
"It is often difficult to ascertain if an individual has a mental disease and whether an act was the product of that disease," the court wrote.
In the taped interview, Girmay says he is not a man who is quick to anger. "Even if I am angry, I don't express emotionally in most cases," he told police, according to a transcript of the interview. The transcript was made public for the first time yesterday.
But when New Hampshire State Police Cpl. Wayne Fortier asks Girmay if he was hurt by Tsehaye's rejection, Girmay replies: "Of course, I have to be hurt-- I have to be hurt-- because it's-- I have been too fond of her."
Girmay says on the tape that he did not set out to but the ax, but was passing by a hardware store, and saw it displayed in the wind. " I didn't go buy the ax-- but I saw the ax-- and I bought it because I was angry," he says. "I was angry, and I wanted to use it."
Later in the interview he tells the police that he didn't want to use it, he just wanted to "show her that if she can punish me for a lifetime -- I can punish her with this -- not to kill her -- but to show her -- that I have also the power."
At one point Hanover Police Detective Nicholas Giaccone asks Girmay why he did it.
" I don't know," Girmay replies. " I was -- maybe her words that drove me to such unconscious -- state on unconscious."
Girmay also told the officers that he waited at the door of the women's bedroom with the ax in his hand and watched as they slept. He said he went into another room and prayed to God, to keep him from committing the "sin." But then he said he returned to their room.
"She waked up and she say I love you Haile," Girmay says toward the end of the tape. "After I beat her -- so she called her brother's name and then she said Haile I love you.
"But it was done," Girmay says. " It was too late for her to change."
But that defense likely would be affected by a ruling issued yesterday that Girmay's taped confession to police can be used as evidence at his trial.
Grafton County Superior Court Judge Peter W. Smith ruled yesterday that the two-hour recorded interview- in which Girmay, 33, confesses to killing the women and states how and why he did it- is admissible, despite defense protests that he didn't understand his rights as a suspect.
The ruling will certainly affect how each side presents its case, especially since Girmay indicates on the tape that he had doubts about killing the women. To prove insanity, a defendant must show that he was not in a state of mind to appreciate that what he was doing was criminal.
"The most widely used test is the inability to distinguish right from wrong," said Michael Mello, a criminal-law professor at Vermont Law School.
Selamawit Tsehaye, who had been engaged to marry Girmay, and Trhas Berhe, her roommate, were discovered dead from ax wounds in their Summer Street apartment in Hanover on June 17, 1991. Screams from the apartment had prompted neighbors to call police, and when officers arrived, Girmay answered the door.
According to police testimony given during a recent court hearing, Girmay shook hands with police at the door and said, "I killed them. I killed them both. I killed them both with an ax."
It was not that statement, though, that Girmay's lawyers wanted suppressed. Rather, it was what he said to police late that day that public defenders George Ostler and James Moir did not want the jury to hear.
Girmay says in that interview that he bought the ax about three days before the women were killed. He says he bought it on a whim shortly after Tsehaye told him she did not want to marry him after all. And he says on the tape that on the morning of June 17, he hesitated, prayed and waited in the early morning hours before killing the two women.
Girmay, a former geophysics graduate student at Uppsala University in Sweden, has been housed in the Secure Psychiatric Unit of the New Hampshire State Prison since June of this year- a year after the homicides. He has been undergoing treatment with psychotropic drugs.
"He was transferred to the unit for treatment of paranoid delusions which manifested themselves while he was housed at the (Grafton) county jail," his lawyers stated in court records. Moir and Ostler also state in court records that they plan to pursue the insanity defense.
Neither Girmay's lawyers nor Assistant New Hampshire Attorneys General Mark Zuckerman and John A. Stephen would discuss how the insanity defense will be affected by use of the taped confession.
"It's an important piece of evidence that can be presented to the jury so they will get a complete picture as to what happened," was the only thing Zuckerman would say.
Under New Hampshire law, an insanity defense is known as an "affirmative defense," meaning that the defense must establish by a preponderance of evidence that the defendant was insane. It means the defense will present its case first at the trial. Normally, it is up to the state to carry the burden of proof, and the prosecution's case comes first.
But there are no set standards in New Hampshire for determining what constitutes a successful insanity defense. Lawyers preparing such a defense look to a 1985 state Supreme Court ruling that says the defense must prove that a defendant is mentally ill and the crime is a product of that illness.
"It is often difficult to ascertain if an individual has a mental disease and whether an act was the product of that disease," the court wrote.
In the taped interview, Girmay says he is not a man who is quick to anger. "Even if I am angry, I don't express emotionally in most cases," he told police, according to a transcript of the interview. The transcript was made public for the first time yesterday.
But when New Hampshire State Police Cpl. Wayne Fortier asks Girmay if he was hurt by Tsehaye's rejection, Girmay replies: "Of course, I have to be hurt-- I have to be hurt-- because it's-- I have been too fond of her."
Girmay says on the tape that he did not set out to but the ax, but was passing by a hardware store, and saw it displayed in the wind. " I didn't go buy the ax-- but I saw the ax-- and I bought it because I was angry," he says. "I was angry, and I wanted to use it."
Later in the interview he tells the police that he didn't want to use it, he just wanted to "show her that if she can punish me for a lifetime -- I can punish her with this -- not to kill her -- but to show her -- that I have also the power."
At one point Hanover Police Detective Nicholas Giaccone asks Girmay why he did it.
" I don't know," Girmay replies. " I was -- maybe her words that drove me to such unconscious -- state on unconscious."
Girmay also told the officers that he waited at the door of the women's bedroom with the ax in his hand and watched as they slept. He said he went into another room and prayed to God, to keep him from committing the "sin." But then he said he returned to their room.
"She waked up and she say I love you Haile," Girmay says toward the end of the tape. "After I beat her -- so she called her brother's name and then she said Haile I love you.
"But it was done," Girmay says. " It was too late for her to change."
Original Format
Newspaper
Vol. No./Issue No.
Vol. 41/ No. 159
Contributor of the Digital Item
Mesa, Drew
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
Strohmeyer, Sarah, “Girmay Ruling May Affect Use Of Insanity Defense,” HIST299, accessed July 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/147.