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Pros And Cons Of Insanity Defense

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The insanity defense allows people with mental illness to avoid being imprisoned for a crime on the assumption that he or she was not capable of distinguishing right from wrong (law.com). Sometimes, will consist in a psychiatric treatment instead of jail time. The insanity defense should be abolished. The legal system should not fail to enforced laws because of unprovable beliefs and statements, like someone is insane and therefore there is not responsibility of their actions. It is important to note that “insanity” is a legal term, not a psychological one, and experts disagree whether it has valid psychological meaning. In some studies, as many as 70 percent of NGRI defendants withdrew their plea when a state-appointed expert found some of …show more content…

So rather than trying to dispute the facts, the goal is to find the defendant as being innocent because of his mental state. Since many societies do not want to give punishments to people who do not cordially know what is right from wrong. The trials evaluation would become more about an individual’s state of mind. One huge advantage of the insanity defense is that the accused could avoid penalized with death, even if he were proven guilty. In the context of the crime, the sentence can be very lenient as compared with an accused who is proven to be guilty, but is not proven insane. If a person really does have a mental incapacity, and it will be considered that is condition has caused him to commit a capital crime, which means that the defense can save his or her life. Put in mind that that a capital crime carries a punishment of eventual death. However, being found not guilty because of insanity means that capital punishment is out of the question. This means that the accused would just be housed at a professional mental health treatment center. Though it might not be jail, still gets him out of the streets. Simply by the virtue of insanity, a person can get some respite from the court. While he will be declared medically and criminally insane, he would not be tried under the same circumstances as an accused individual who is in his right mind. In some cases, people who are accused of crimes can avoid being imprisoned when proven insane. Though that chance of acquittal has become slimmer over the years, it is still possible that a person might get some reprieve. It is likely that he would be sent to a psychiatric facility and may even be set free after staying there. However, it is not guaranteed that the accused would be entirely acquitted. One way

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