Arguments For The Insanity Defense

The insanity defense proves defendants not guilty by arguing that at the time of the crime they lacked the mental capacity to realize that they were committing a crime. This defense is currently used in 46 states, some of which allow defendants to argue that they had no control over their actions even if they realized that what they were doing was unlawful (Mental Health America). The insanity defense was created to impose a moral check on the judicial system; many people argued that if children aren’t punished for crimes because they are too young to realize that their actions are wrong, then adults who aren’t mentally capable of making this distinction shouldn’t be punished either. This defense, however, is often abused, which defeats its

John Hinckley was identified as the shooter of President Ronald Reagan, a police officer, a Secret Service agent, and press secretary James Brady. During the trial, it was revealed that Hinckley previously wrote a letter to actress Jodie Foster, who he was obsessed with, explaining his plans to assassinate President Reagan in order to impress her (Collins). Because there was no doubt that Hinckley committed the crime, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, which was the only way he could avoid punishment. Although all of the government psychiatrists concluded that Hinckley was perfectly sane, the defense psychiatrists argued that he was legally insane. Such a strong contradiction between the test results clearly demonstrates that the psychiatrists are providing inaccurate results and that these tests are not an effective way to determine the mental capacity of a defendant. The fact that the psychiatrists who work closely with him claim that he is perfectly sane, while those who are paid to defend him and prove him innocent all claim that he is insane, proves that psychiatrists can easily alter the tests to get the results that they desire. After three days, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on all thirteen courts and was sent to St. Elizabeth’s Mental Hospital in Washington, D.C. (Valentine). Despite how large and important this court case was,

The volitional test was originally created as an addition to the McNaughtan test in order to equally protect those who realized that what they were doing was wrong but couldn’t control themselves. This portion of the insanity defense will be used in cases such as William Heirens’, who killed a large number of young females and then wrote on the living room wall in lipstick, “For heavens sake catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself” (Brooks 129). Although the volitional prong has good moral intensions, it clearly generates abuse to the insanity defense because there is such a slim difference between those who qualify for the defense and those who manage to control their behavior. Both the definition of “mentally ill” and the concept of the volitional prong are not backed by sufficient scientific knowledge. With this in mind, psychiatrists clearly don’t have enough bases to measure people’s ability to maintain self control.

Another approach to strengthen the insanity defense is to implement the mens rea test. With this test, defendants will only be able to use the defense if they are mentally ill to the point where they do not have the mental capacity required to commit a crime (PBS). In other words, if the person