Revisiting the Insanity Defence: The Capital Murder Trial of Matthew Charles Lamb

• Author: Mr. Justice Saul Nosanchuk
• Pages: 67-92

Revisiting

the

Insanity

Defence:

The

Capital

Murder Trial

of

Matthew

Charles

Lamb

MR.

JUSTICE

SAUL

NOSANCHUK

1999

The

capital murder trial

of

Matthew Charles Lamb

is a

tragic

one.

It

begins

with

a

shocking

and

senseless event that occurred

at

10:30

on the

warm

sum-

mer

night

of

June

25,1966,

on a

residential street

on the

east side

of

Windsor.

Six

young adults

in

their early twenties were strolling down Ford Boulevard,

walking

in the

direction

of a bus

stop

on

Tecumseh Road. Suddenly they were

ambushed

by

Matthew Lamb,

age

eighteen,

who

stepped

out in

front

of

them

from

behind

a

tree.

He

pointed

a

shotgun

in

their direction

and

said, "Stop

or

I'll

shoot."

When Edith Chaykoski

put up her

hands,

he

shot

her in the

abdomen. When Andrew Woloch stepped

forward,

Lamb

fired,

striking

him

in the

abdomen

as

well.

Ms.

Chaykoski died

of

those gunshot wounds within

two

hours.

Mr.

Woloch died nineteen days later. Lamb then shot

and

injured

a

woman whose silhouette

he

observed

in the

doorway

of a

nearby house.

He

walked

to a

house several blocks

away,

knocked

on the

door,

and

threatened

to

kill

the

elderly woman

who

answered. When

she

called

to her

husband

to

phone

the

police, Lamb

ran out of the

house

and

threw

the

shotgun

in a

near-

by

field.

Finally,

he

went

to his

uncle's home, where

he had

been residing,

and

went

to

sleep.

The

police soon identified

the

weapon used

in the

killings

as

coming

from

the

home

of

Lamb's uncle. There

was no

doubt that Matthew Lamb

had

removed

the

weapon

from

that home

on the

evening

of

June

25. The

next

day

67

68

SAUL

NOSANCHUK

he

was

arrested

and

charged with

the

capital murder

of

Edith Chaykoski.

He

faced

a

mandatory death penalty

if

convicted

of

that crime.

On

Lamb's

first

court appearance,

he sat in the

prisoner's dock

at the

magistrate's court without counsel.

He was

remanded

by the

presiding mag-

istrate

for a

psychiatric examination

to

determine whether there

was

reason

to

believe

he was

mentally ill.

Dr.

Walter

Yaworsky,

a

Windsor psychiatrist

in

private practice, con-

ducted

the

examination. When

he

appeared

in

court,

Dr.

Yaworsky

testified

that,

in his

opinion, there

was

reason

to

believe that Matthew Lamb

was

men-

tally

ill and

unfit

to

stand trial.

The

presiding magistrate remanded

the

accused

into

custody

of the

Ontario Hospital

at

Penetanguishene

for a

period

of

thirty days,

as set out in

the

Criminal

Code.

At the end of

this period, Lamb

was

certified

as

mentally

ill

and

unfit

to

stand trial.

He was

confined

to the

Ontario Hospital until

the

psychiatric

staff

there concluded

he

could

be

returned

to

Windsor

as fit to

stand trial.

At

the end of

August 1966 Lamb

was

sent back

to

Windsor with

the

req-

uisite report

from

the

hospital.

The

report indicated that

he was

capable

of

understanding

the

nature

of the

proceedings against

him and of

instructing

and

communicating with counsel.

At

this point

I

undertook

to

represent

him

as

defence

counsel, assigned under

the

Legal

Aid

Plan then

in

existence

in

Essex

Country.

In

1966 many lawyers

in

Ontario represented indigent clients

on a pro

bono

basis.

A

number

of

civil

and

criminal

lawyers

volunteered

to

serve

on the

panel,

and

cases were generally assigned

in

rotation.

I

willingly

accepted

the

assignment

to

represent Lamb

on

this very serious charge. First,

however,

I

needed

to

determine whether Lamb

was

satisfied

to

have

me act as

his

assigned counsel under

the

Ontario

Legal

Aid

Plan.

He had no

hesitation

in

signing

a

written retainer authorizing

me to

represent him.

I

tried

to

find

out as

much

as I

could about

the

circumstances

of the

case

and

Lamb's background.

After

my

initial talk with Lamb,

I

intended

to

continue

my

investigation

by

interviewing witnesses, reviewing

the

prosecu-

tion

evidence, examining relevant police records,

and

considering

all

available

psychiatric evidence, including

the

results

of any

psychological tests adminis-

tered

to

Lamb.

In

addition,

I

would

fully

explore

the

legal

issues

in the

case.

At

our first

interview, Matthew Lamb presented himself

as a

slightly

built,

quiet,

and

detached eighteen-year-old.

He was

boyish

in

appearance,