ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A man convicted of killing his wife in 1985 – but then found not guilty by reason of mental disease – lost an appeal Tuesday to be freed from state supervision.
Michael Spencer Sr., now 75, shot and killed his wife and seriously injured his father-in-law in Ashwaubenon. He was acquitted due to the so-called insanity determination. He was released in 1988, but that was revoked after he attacked a woman in 1993. He was again released into the community in 1995 but remains under state supervision. He is now appealing a 2016 decision not to release him from his mental commitment.
Spencer argued that the evidence was insufficient to establish that he is presently a danger to himself or others because he is not currently diagnosed with a major mental illness and he has functioned well in the community for years without mental health treatment.
But in an eight-page ruling issued Tuesday, the appeals court upheld a circuit court’s decision to keep him under state supervision. (NGI refers to ‘not guilty by insanity’.)
“Applying a deferential standard of review, we conclude that the circuit court’s decision to deny Spencer’s discharge from his NGI commitment was supported by credible evidence. The court could properly determine that Spencer could not be safely released from his commitment without danger to himself or others because: (1) the shooting of his wife and father-in-law evinced a capacity for violence toward others; (2) Spencer still possessed the personality disorder that contributed to the shootings; (3) the paranoid or delusional symptoms Spencer had previously experienced could recur if he were subjected to stressors in the future; and (4) Spencer lacked the necessary insight to seek help if he experienced future stressors. Meanwhile, the NGI commitment continued to serve the goal of reducing Spencer’s dangerousness because the supervision structure provided an opportunity to recognize and address the effect of future stressors on Spencer’s behavior,” the court wrote.
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