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Insanity Plea Persuasive Essay

733 Words3 Pages

Over the years, the Insanity Plea has gained much fame and controversy, and for good reason. The fact that person can simply plead that he or she wasn’t in the right mind, and get away with any crime, causes many to be outraged, and justly so. With the introduction of the insanity plea into the United States Justice System, many men and women have been able to escape proper punishment for their crimes, but also there have been necessary plea’s for those who are truly insane. The United States Justice System should keep the insanity plea, and while there will be those who try to abuse the system, the right to a fair trial for all is reason enough to keep such a law.
The insanity plea has been around since 1724. This in itself is proof that …show more content…

There is a difference between being legally insane and having diminished capacity. This meaning that not all cases would be so black and white. The insanity plea would not cover somebody who at the time of the crime may not have been in complete control of his or her actions, but their intent was clear. This is where many become confused. They believe that anybody can claim that they are insane and get away with the crime. The fact is that the insanity plea only covers those who are truly insane, and even then, they must provide “clear and convincing evidence”, meaning that there must be some sort of absolute that provides their excuse.(Source C) Many of the crimes that are pleaded for insanity actually fall under diminished capacity. This is where the controversy is born, under the belief that those who are pleading for insanity are only incapacitated, not insane. The Courts are able to distinguish these differences. “Insanity plea statistics reveals that almost 70% of defendants withdrew their defense on insanity plea when their respective state appointed experts found out that they were legally san persons.” (Source D) This means that most who tried to get the insanity plea were stopped, proving that the insanity plea is much harder to abuse than many believe. And on top of that only less than 1 in 100

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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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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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Two Arguments Against The Insanity Defense By Thomas Szasz

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So what can be done? A few numbers of American writers have argued that the insanity defence should be abolished. Two arguments have been relied upon. The first is that the insane defendant should be able to rely upon the same defenses as a sane defendant. For an instance, if an insane person lacks mens rea for an offence he deserves to be acquitted.

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There are three tests that are used in criminal justice to decide if a defendant was suffering insanity at the time of a murder. Each test includes of many essentials to govern what an offender may have been going through or if he or she is suffering from mental illness. On the other hand, some offenders may have been suffering from an injury while another might be playing the role in an effort to be set free by a motive of pretending to be insane. It has been documented that some wrongdoers who commit crimes are blind-sided because of the lack of knowledge due to insanity. That does not mean that this person is not going to receive some type of repercussion for his or her actions, but there are a series of tests that must take place before a determination

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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

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Most defendants found “not guilty by reason of insanity” are incarcerated in a mental institute. Usually their sentence is longer than if they can been convicted and sent to prison (Smith, 2012). Overall, the insanity defense is an interesting concept. While implemented to help those who needed it, over the years it has made many question its existence. Yet, it should be understood that it is not an easy plea to use or a slap on the wrist when the defendant is convicted.

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Less than one percent of felony cases raise an insanity defense in hopes of nullifying the case. In that one percent, there is even less of a chance that the defense will be successful. (“Frontline”) An insanity defense may not have a high success rate, but when it does succeed, it can get an overwhelming amount of media coverage. One famous case in particular is the trial of Jeffery Dahmer.

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