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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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