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Essay: Should The Insanity Defense Be Reformed?

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Should the insanity defence be reformed? Discuss referring to current law and evidence on how the defence is used in practice.

This essay will analyse the defence of insanity by discussing the elements of M’Naghten rule: defect of reason, disease of the mind, and not knowing what defendant was doing or not knowing that it was ‘wrong’ at the time of offence, and the fit to trial test by reviewing relevant cases to demonstrate how the defence is applied in Criminal Law, and possible reform for the defence of insanity.

The defence of insanity is for all crimes to those who are suffering from mental disorders and do not know what they are doing at the time of the offence or do not know that what they are doing is wrong. If a defendant is using the insanity defence, the focus is on a special verdict of “not guilty by reason of insanity.” “This qualified acquittal requires the court to assess any continuing danger posed by the defendant and consider whether compulsory detention, treatment, and/or supervision is desirable.” This means that even though the defendant is found not guilty of insanity, they will be detained until they are deemed fit for release. Ian Brady was found insane at a trial in 1966, and is still detained at Ashworth Hospital.

M’Naghten’s case was very significant, as upon acquittal of the murder …show more content…

The medical evidence showed that the defendant was suffering from psychomotor epilepsy. This was the first epilepsy case, where the defendant used defences of insanity and automatism, to be decided by the House of Lords. Lord Denning did not agree with a previous decision of R v Charlson [1955], stating that “other diseases, such as epilepsy or cerebral tumours are not diseases of the mind, even when they are such as to manifest themselves in violence” This resulted in a verdict of

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