insanity-defense statute upheld

WASHINGTON - In a major test of the wide latitude given to states in writing their own insanity-defense laws, a divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the murder conviction of a schizophrenic teenager who killed a Flagstaff police officer six years ago.

The court's majority rejected claims that Eric Clark was deprived of a full and complete defense because the Arizona Legislature went too far in narrowing the scope of the state's insanity statute in 1993.

"We are satisfied that neither in theory nor in practice did Arizona's 1993 abridgment of the insanity formulation deprive Clark of due process," Justice David Souter wrote for the court's 6-3 majority.