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Insanity Defense Essay

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Often referred to as the founding moment of the insanity defense, Daniel M’Naghten was acquitted for the death of the Prime Minister’s secretary Edward Drummond. M’Naghten fired at point blank range, hitting Drummond in the back after mistaking him for the Prime Minister Robert Peel. The story of Queen Victoria 's explicit anger at the acquittal of M’Naghten (shared by the public as a reflection on an irrational legal system which could "acquit" a defendant whom "everyone knew" was guilty) has been told over time and in courtrooms across the world (Perlin). Richard Kling, a professor at Chicago Kent College of Law, said that jurors’ skepticism is rooted in beliefs that an insanity defense “is something a guilty person uses to get away with murder” (Lat). In the case of Eddie Routh, a man who shot "American Sniper" Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield at a Texas gun range in …show more content…

Another defense sometimes used by prosecutors is the plea of "temporary insanity"; this essentially amounts to a claim of a crime of passion. In an eerily similar manner to crimes committed under the influence of PTSD, this defense is used for someone who had a temporary loss of being able to tell right from wrong due to an extreme traumatic experience. Most jurors are unsympathetic to this claim (Rubinstein). The largely unseen counter worlds of empirical reality, behavioral advance, scientific discovery, and philosophical inquiry paint quite a different picture. Empirically, the insanity defense is rarely used, is less frequently successful, and generally results in maximum security facilities (often far more restrictive than prisons or reformatories) for far longer periods of time than the defendants would have been subject to had they been sentenced criminally (Perlin.) Dr. Ronald Markman, a psychiatrist who evaluates defendants and provides expert testimony in court cases, said “an insanity defense is introduced in less than 1 percent of all criminal cases in the state of California”

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Dr. Mark Nolan, Senior Lecturer at ANU College of Law, says that the NGRI plea “enables defendants to avoid criminal liability and standard criminal punishment” (Nolan 8). The main disagreement with America is the focus whether if the “guilty defendant” pursues to misuse the “Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity” as an alternative to imprisonment or if the criminally accused was at the time of committing the crime “clinically insane” and in need psychotherapy. Therefore, during this discussion of opposing viewpoints concerning the insanity defense being misused or ethical are going to be

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. Under the Federal Rules of Evidence a mental health expert in a criminal trial can not offer an opinion on the ultimate legal issue of whether the defendant did or did not have a mental state or condition that constitutes an element of the crime charged or of a defense. An opinion is not objectionable just because it embraces an ultimate issue. (704(a)). However, in a criminal case, an expert witness must not state an opinion about whether the defendant did or did not have a mental state or condition that constitutes an element of the crime charged or of a defense.(704(b)).

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The Andrea Yates Case: The Insanity Defense On June 20, 2001, in Houston, Texas, Andrea Pia Yates was charged with the murder of her five children, which she drowned in the bathtub one at a time, and was found not guilty by reason of insanity under the Texas Law Insanity Defense. The legislative history of the Texas Law Insanity Defense begins with the British test for right and wrong, known as the M’Naghten, being adopted in the majority of American states. The M’Naghten test for right and wrong required a mental disease that kept the defendant from controlling their actions and that cognitive impairment is the cause for the defective reasoning of what is right and what is wrong. Beginning in 1973, Texas adopted the American Law Institute’s

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In the movie, Anatomy of A Murder, Lieutenant Manion kills the owner of an Inn who allegedly beat and raped his wife. Manion claimed that he did not remember doing it and that he “must have been mad” when he committed the crime. Upon seeing an Army psychiatrist, Lieutenant Manion, and his attorney, Paul Biegler, entered a plea of not guilty by reason of irresistible impulse. However, this plea was not easy for Biegler to prove and was not a defense that was commonly used or even heard of. Manion was assessed by the Army psychiatrist who concluded that the Lieutenant was temporarily insane at the time of the murder.

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621 Words | 3 Pages

A case can be changed due to the call of the insanity plea. Nevertheless, This may cause a possible difference to the charge of the defence. In a court case dealing with murder such as the issue with the Clutter family, the Insanity plea was brought into thought to test if Perry and Dick were mentally stable during that time. By definition, the insanity plea is an argument stating the defense was not responsible for their actions due to a psychiatric disease at the time of the act, consequently, making him/her unaware of the occurring actions moreover the later consequences. In the book, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the main characters Perry and Dick killed the Clutter family committing the crime of the century.

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1528 Words | 7 Pages

In the field of criminal law there is a certain type of criminal defense that comes to the court and has a low success rate. These cases concern the mental capacity of the defendant and if they have enough mental capacity, or are sane enough, to be aware of their crime and consequences of crime. The insanity defense is extremely rare because of how difficult it is for the defense to prove to the court and jury that the defendant did not have the mental capacity to understand what they did wrong and the consequences from it. The case of Myers III v. State of Indiana is one example of criminal responsibility and mental capacity. This case has information that can be connected to the textbook with the insanity defense tests, mental competence

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The first time I heard about the insanity plea was in the Andrea Yates case back in 2001. Yates was class valedictorian when she was in high school with a good background.

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The court dismisses the plea quickly because “the justice system ignores psychosocial complexities and histories in favor of black and white definitions of right and wrong” (Myers). The justice system in this time very rarely accepted pleas of insanity or mental illness. Capote wrote that “after an hour’s conversation with the defendants, the doctor rule[d] out that neither man

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641 Words | 3 Pages

Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) is a form of insanity defense that allows for an individual to not be found guilty of a crime due to a mental defect or disease that results in a lack of mens rea, or the capability to intentionally commit a crime. However, simply having a mental illness or defect does not guarantee that an offender will be found NGRI. Not only would a defendant have to have a major or severe mental illness or disease, but the defendant would have to prove that their condition impaired them so greatly as to not have any control over their behavior or any concept that they had done anything wrong at the time of the offense. Although Bob undoubtedly had a diminished capacity for logic and reason in this case, the example as given does not provide enough detail to determine the nature of Bob’s personality or his potential motives in committing this crime. Nevertheless, there is one major flaw to Bob’s insanity defense: he tried to hide the crime.

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92 Words | 1 Pages

In refers to class discussion, as a result of the M’Nagthen case, the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 (IDRA) is only use when the defendant does not understand the nature of the crime committed. Therefore, although neurosis or personality disorders qualify as a mental disease according to the DSM-5; the law has eliminated these types of disorders from being utilized in courts as a form of defense. The law has also excluded the irresistible impulse or inabilities to comply with the rules as a means of defense in the federal

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755 Words | 4 Pages

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, considers the qualities in which society determines sanity. The label of insanity is given when someone is different from the perceived norm. Conversely, a person is perceived as sane when their behavior is consistent with the beliefs of the majority. Although the characters of this novel are patients of a mental institution, they all show qualities of sanity. The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb.

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1708 Words | 7 Pages

Some say mental illness is an invisible disease, one that begins to eat someone from the inside out. Being mentally ill comes in many different forms: from basic depression and anxiety, to schizophrenia and depersonalization. These disorders can make a person feel as though they are losing control over what they are doing, as well as losing sight on what makes them normal. Mental illness can make a person do things that a normal person would not do, simple because of a person 's moral and ethical values. Sometimes, however, a person who is mentally ill commits crimes that are unforgivable.

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1339 Words | 6 Pages

Knowledge at the Price of Insanity Throughout William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying, Darl Bundren is never able to have a complete way of identifying himself and experiences an increasing detachment from his family during their trip to bury their dead mother, Addie. . In an attempt to make everything better Darl sets the barn on fire. An act he believes to be very practical, but others see as insane. The connection is completely severed when he is sent away to an asylum in Jackson because of his attempt to end the nightmare journey he and his family were on.

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593 Words | 3 Pages

An incident where pleading insanity worked in one’s favor is heard in the case of Lee Robin. Lee Robin was a 30-year-old doctor who was charged with murder of his wife and his two year old daughter. Robin admitted to killing his wife with an ax and drowning his infant daughter. After the murders, Robin called the police and reported that there was “a problem” at his home. Soon after, the police arrived.

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1042 Words | 5 Pages

Some say an insanity defense is a legal concept, not a clinical one. In some cases, the prosecution has had a hard time distinguishing between people pretending to be insane and the people who actually suffer from insanity. (Math, Kumar, and Moirangthem) Even though it is legal to be insane, do not take advantage of it and go do something you will regret later in life. There is a time and place and there is also a way to act in a public place.

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