Nation IN BRIEF : WISCONSIN : Insanity Plea Likely at Dahmer Hearing

Jeffrey L. Dahmer, who has confessed to strangling and mutilating 17 young men, is expected to plead insanity at a hearing today in Milwaukee. Under Wisconsin’s two-tiered legal system, Dahmer, 31, may skip an initial trial phase by admitting his guilt in the murders and go directly to the insanity phase. The actual trial or the insanity hearing, either of which would be decided by a jury, would begin early next year. If found to be insane, Dahmer would be sent to a prison hospital and could conceivably be freed if and when he were found to be sane and not a danger to the community.