From the archives: Ferguson to use insanity defense

This story was originally published in Newsday on Sept. 20, 1994.

Lawyers for accused Long Island Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson yesterday filed official notice of their intention to pursue an insanity defense.

Manhattan attorney Ronald Kuby said Ferguson was informed the notice was being filed and did not object.

But Kuby noted that at his last court appearance Aug. 20, Ferguson had said he did not want to go forward with such a defense.
Ferguson, 36, who is charged with killing six people and wounding 19 others in a rampage on a crowded LIRR train in December, believes he is innocent because he says a Nassau County sheriff's deputy told him someone else is responsible, Kuby said.

At the August hearing, Ferguson was for the second time declared competent to stand trial by Nassau County Court Judge Donald Belfi. Ferguson's attorneys had argued that Ferguson had grown increasingly delusional since he first was declared competent in January.

The notice, filed in Mineola yesterday, is standard in such cases, and allows the prosecution to seek records pertaining to Ferguson's mental state and to have him examined by their own pyschiatrist, according to Kuby, who is representing Ferguson along with William Kunstler.