Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association

The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association is identified in the book through its role in drafting legislation that reshaped the review and transfer process for people found not guilty by reason of insanity. Its subcommittee’s work, involving prosecutor Bernie Yavitch, connected the controversy surrounding Billy Milligan’s treatment and placement to a change in Ohio law.

Institutional Role in the Legislation

During 1979, Ohio legislators considered changes to the laws governing people found not guilty by reason of insanity. The proposed framework gave the county prosecutor a right to demand a hearing in the jurisdiction where the crime had occurred before an individual could be transferred to a less restrictive setting. It also changed the interval for patient review from every 90 days to every 180 days and made those reviews open to the public, press, and television.

Bernie Yavitch, the prosecutor in Milligan’s case, later said that he had served on the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association subcommittee that drafted the new law. He described the group’s work as a response to the public outcry over the Milligan situation. The account establishes the association’s involvement through this subcommittee and Yavitch’s participation; it does not detail the association’s wider organizational structure or activities.

The Milligan Case and Public Controversy

The dispute arose as Milligan’s diagnosis and court-ordered treatment became matters of legal and public concern. In its December 1979 findings, the court described him as mentally ill, identified his condition as multiple personality, and ordered hospitalization consistent with that diagnosis. The decision also stated that he presented substantial risks to himself and others and required a maximum-security facility. These findings placed questions of diagnosis, treatment, safety, and institutional placement within the legal process.

The book reports that the proposed law became known to many as either the Columbus Dispatch law or the Milligan law. That naming reflects how closely the legislative debate was associated with the public controversy around his case, although the account does not reduce the bill’s provisions to a ruling about Milligan alone: they applied to the broader category of people found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Ohio Senate Bill 297 and Its Effects

Ohio Senate Bill 297 passed and took effect on May 20, 1980. Its provisions increased the prosecutor’s formal role in transfer decisions, lengthened the interval between reviews, and opened review hearings to public and media attendance. The change therefore affected both the procedure for considering a less restrictive placement and the visibility of those proceedings.

The book presents a direct connection between the controversy and the law’s passage: Yavitch linked the drafting effort to the outcry over Milligan, and Judge Jay Flowers later told the author that the law had been passed because of Billy. The association’s documented significance lies in its subcommittee’s part in turning that controversy into legislation, while the law itself made decisions about placement and review more procedurally contested and publicly exposed.