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Topic: Insanity defense

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Plea of temporary insanity

Irresistible impulse

Diminished responsibility

Sanity

Plea

Affirmative defense

Insanity

Criminal procedure

Crime

Murder

Democratic Party (United States)

John Hinckley

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Defendant

	Criminal Law: Insanity Defense (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The insanity defense is available in most jurisdictions that respect human rights and have a rule of law, though the extent to which it can be applied may differ widely between jurisdictions.
		The use of the insanity defense in cases of psychopathy is rare and almost uniformly unsuccessful.
		In the United States, a trial in which the insanity defense is invoked typically involves the testimony of psychiatrists which argue that the defendant is or is not insane.
	www.juiceenewsdaily.com /1105/business/insanity.html?1131132000468 (590 words)

	Politics: The Insanity Defense
		INTRODUCTION The insanity defense refers to that branch of the concept of insanity which defines the extent to which men accused of crimes may be relieved of criminal responsibility by virtue of mental disease.
		Insanity refers to a class of behaviors known by observing the behavior of the patient, and criminality is a class of behavior likewise known by observing the behavior of the defendant.
		Insanity is a legal concept, not a medical concept, and insanity is defined within the context of an adversary system wherin psychiatrists and lawyers battle one another over the meaning of terms such as "right and wrong" and "ability to control one's behavior." Mental illness and mental disease are psychoanalytic concepts, not scientific concepts.
	www.cyberessays.com /Politics/126.htm (3595 words)

	Insanity Defense: Encyclopedia of Everyday Law
		The theory behind the defense is persons who are insane cannot have the intent required to perform a criminal act because they either do not know that act is wrong or cannot control their actions even when they understand the act is wrong.
		Other states reformed their insanity defense statutes, by adopting the M'Naghten standard over the ALI standard, by shifting the burden of proof from the state to the defense, by changing their commitment and release procedures, or adopting a "Guilty but Mentally Ill" defense.
		In states where the burden is on the defense to prove insanity, the defense is required to show either clear and convincing EVIDENCE or a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant is insane.
	law.enotes.com /everyday-law-encyclopedia/insanity-defense (2587 words)

	Insanity defense - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		In a criminal trial, the insanity defenses are possible defenses by excuse, via which defendants may argue that they should not be held criminally liable for breaking the law, as they were mentally ill at the time of their allegedly criminal actions.
		The insanity defense is still in use in the United States, while Australia and Canada have renamed it the mental disorder defense, and Commonwealth nations tend to shy away from it, partially due to the stigma of the word "insanity".
		The insanity defense is available in most jurisdictions that respect human rights and have a rule of law, though the extent to which it can or should be applied may differ widely between jurisdictions: for example, as in cases involving the battered-woman syndrome.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Insanity_defense (2169 words)

	insanity (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Although a defense known as "diminished capacity" bears some resemblance to the "reason of insanity" defense (in that both examine the mental competence of the defendant), there are important differences.
		The insanity defense is the compromise: basically, it reflects society's belief that the law should not punish defendants who are mentally incapable of controlling their conduct.
		The Act also contained the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984, 18 U.S.C. § 4241, which sets out sentencing and other provisions for dealing with offenders who are or have been suffering from a mental disease or defect.
	www.law.cornell.edu /background/insane/insanity.html (696 words)

	NMHA Position Statement - In Support of the Insanity Defense (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The insanity defense refers to a defendant’s plea that he or she is not guilty of a crime because he or she lacked the mental capacity to appreciate that what she or he did was wrong.
		The implication that the insanity defense is used by “fakers” is disputed by the fact that in 80 percent of the cases where a defendant is acquitted on a “not guilty by reason of insanity” plea, the prosecution and defense have agreed on the appropriateness of the plea before the trial.
		Thus, from the origins of the insanity defense, considerations of morality were combined with the factual question of whether or not the accused rationally appreciated the consequences of his or her act.
	www.nmha.org /position/ps18.cfm (3717 words)

	Insanity Denied: Abolition of the Insanity Defense in Kansas
		When Kansas recognized the insanity defense, the jury was given the choice of finding the defendant guilty of the crime charged, not guilty based on reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt for reasons other than insanity, or not guilty by reason of insanity.
		Defendants who assert the insanity defense at trial, and who are ultimately found guilty of their charges, serve significantly longer sentences than defendants tried on similar charges who do not assert the insanity defense.
		Although the types of offenses most often associated with the insanity defense vary from state to state, some not guilty by reason of insanity acquittees are charged with relatively minor offenses such as assault, drug possession, shoplifting, and various property offenses.
	www.law.ku.edu /oldsite/jrnl/v8n2/v8n2p253.html (5618 words)

	Insanity defense Encyclopedia of Psychology - Find Articles (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The insanity defense allows a mentally ill person to avoid being imprisoned for a crime on the assumption that he or she was not capable of distinguishing right from wrong.
		The "not guilty by reason of insanity" (NGRI) verdict rests in part on two assumptions: that some mentally ill people cannot be deterred by the threat of punishment, and that treatment for the defendant is more likely to protect society than a jail term without treatment.
		One problem with discussing NGRI is that there are, strictly speaking, 51 types of insanity defense in the United States-one for each set of state laws, and one for federal law.
	www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0005/ai_2699000509 (1034 words)

	The Insanity Defense
		In one of the more extraordinary cases in the nation's leading death penalty state, a murder defendant with a long history of mental illness who fired his lawyers and argued his own insanity defense in a cowboy outfit is scheduled to be executed on Thursday.
		The insanity defense was first used in the case of an 1843 assassination attempt on British Prime Minister Robert Peel by a psychotic individual named Daniel M'Naghten.
		"It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under any federal statute that, at the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offense, the defendant as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts.
	www.columbia.edu /~lnp3/mydocs/american_left/InsanityDefense.htm (927 words)

	HealthyMinds.org
		According to a 1991 eight-state study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the insanity defense was used in less than one percent of the cases in a representative sampling of cases before those states' county courts.
		That agreement occurred because both the defense and prosecution agreed that the defendant was mentally ill and met the jurisdiction’s test for insanity.
		In Connecticut, for instance, in cases where the insanity defense is successfully argued, the presiding judge determines the amount of time the person would have been incarcerated had they been found sane and convicted for the crime they committed.
	healthyminds.org /insanitydefense.cfm (2216 words)

	Rhode Island news \| projo.com \| The Providence Journal \| Local News
		Wales said the other reason the insanity defense has become "progressively more unsuccessful" is because so many states have switched the burden of proof: they now require the defendant to prove insanity rather than make the prosecution prove that the defendant was sane at the time of the alleged offense.
		THE INSANITY DEFENSE is based on the theory that people who are insane cannot have formed the intent required to prove a criminal act because they either don't know that act is wrong or cannot control their actions even when they know what they're doing is wrong.
		One study found that those acquitted based on the insanity defense often spend twice as long institutionalized as defendants convicted of a similar crime spend in prison, and that once released from mental institutions, they may be subjected to longer court oversight than parolees.
	www.projo.com /news/content/projo_20060618_insane18.15cf601.html (2594 words)

	Washingtonpost.com: The Insanity Defense
		The insanity defense, adopted from centuries-old English law, arose from the notion that some people are so mentally diseased or unable to understand their actions that it is unfair to hold them responsible for criminal behavior.
		Most recently, Lorena Bobbitt used the insanity defense to persuade a jury to acquit her of charges related to cutting off her husband's penis.
		The University of Virginia's Bonnie said that the states that have rejected abolition of the insanity defense have done so not out of constitutional concerns, but rather "people's view that it would be morally wrong" to eliminate the defense.
	www.washingtonpost.com /wp-srv/local/longterm/aron/scotus032994.htm (1018 words)

	Howstuffworks "What does not guilty by reason of insanity mean?"
		On a typical lawyer show, the defense lawyer brings in a psychologist that says that the defendant should not be held accountable for his or her actions because he or she has a certain mental illness that interferes with his or her reasoning capacity.
		To prove legal insanity, the defense must provide credible expert testimony that says how the defendant is (or was) mentally ill, and then explain why this sort of mental illness means that the defendant did not intend to commit a crime.
		The jury does not decide whether the defendant is mentally ill; it determines whether or not the defense's expert testimony has demonstrated this fact, and then decides whether or not this mental disorder meant that he or she did not intend to commit a crime.
	www.howstuffworks.com /question509.htm (694 words)

	Unusual Insanity Defense Statute Survives Challenge
		This made Herrera unable to use Utah's insanity statute in defense of the counts of attempted murder despite the fact that the expert also concluded that the defendant lacked the capacity to conform his conduct to the law.
		Moenssens: Utah’s insanity defense statute is one that was passed in the early 1980’s at a time when the public was outraged at the idea that a killer could get off by pleading insanity.
		These time-honored defenses provide that a person is not guilty if, because of mental disease and defect, the person is unable to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.
	echo.forensicpanel.com /2000/9/17/unusualinsanity.html (1018 words)

	Insanity Defense (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The legal definition of insanity in a legal reference is the judicial determination that an individual’s degree or quantity of mental disorder relieves him or her of criminal responsibility for illegal actions.
		Under the Insanity Defense Reform Act an expert witness is no longer allowed to give his or her opinion on weather or not the defendant was sane or insane at the time of the act.
		The insanity defense is used in less then one percent of all criminal cases and I do not see this statistic change much in the near future.
	www.fortunecity.com /meltingpot/dominica/257/forensic.html (1210 words)

	frontline: a crime of insanity: insanity on trial: insanity defense faqs \| PBS
		The insanity defense has nothing to do with a defendant's current mental status; to be found not guilty by reason of insanity, a judge or jury must evaluate the defendant's state of mind at the time of the offense.
		This does not eliminate the insanity defense; it is merely an alternative for defendants who are found to be mentally ill, but whose illness is not severe enough to relieve him of criminal responsibility.
		If the defendant is found guilty, then he may raise an insanity defense in the second phase of the trial, which determines his sentence.
	www.pbs.org /wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/faqs.html (1436 words)

	Insanity Defense
		Regardless of its duration of the mental disease or defect, insanity which existed at the time of the commission of the crime is a defense to the crime.
		The test for insanity in West Virginia is based on the test outlined in the Model Penal Code which significantly modifies the older M’Naghten test by adding a volitional element of capacity to conform behavior to the requirements of law.
		The defendant is required to raise an insanity defense by presenting evidence which fairly raises a doubt that, at the time of the alleged offense, he or she lacked the capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his or her act or to conform his/ her act to the requirements of the law.
	myweb.wvnet.edu /~jelkins/adcrimlaw/insanity.html (1064 words)

	Online NewsHour: U.S. Supreme Court Weighs Arizona's Insanity Defense Laws -- April 19, 2006
		It's an important distinction, because if you raise the defense that you are insane, the burden of persuading the court shifts from the prosecution to you.
		We have a right -- states traditionally have had rights -- to enact insanity defenses, to define elements of crime, and this is a policy decision Arizona has made.
		And the insanity defense got sort of a bad name after the John Hinckley case.
	www.pbs.org /newshour/bb/law/jan-june06/insanity_4-19.html (1340 words)

	Hillsborough: Teacher will use insanity defense
		The defense is expected to point to the horrific April 2001 death of Lafave's older sister, Angela Beasley, who was 24 years old and five months pregnant when an intoxicated Army captain, Joseph Piotrowski, plowed his Jeep into her car.
		Legal experts say an insanity claim is a defense of last resort, often relied on when the defense cannot plausibly dispute the alleged facts.
		In the Lafave case, the defense faces particular trouble, in that she is accused of multiple sex acts occurring over weeks.
	www.sptimes.com /2004/12/01/Hillsborough/Teacher_will_use_insa.shtml (847 words)

	Forensic-Evidence: The Insanity Defense - A Constitutional Right?
		On appeal, Finger argued that Nevada's abolishment of insanity as an affirmative defense violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the Nevada Constitution.
		Since Nevada laws concerning the insanity defense were extremely restrictive, the post- Hinckley developments in the other states had little or no effect on the Nevada approach.
		Under the new law, an accused is barred from arguing that he or she should be acquitted on the basis of legal insanity.
	www.forensic-evidence.com /site/Behv_Evid/Finger_insanity.html (2179 words)

	T.P.I. -- CRIM. 40.16(b)
		The defendant has raised the defense that [he] [she] was insane at the time of the commission of the offense.
		2. The issue of the existence of the affirmative defense of insanity may not be submitted to the jury unless it is fairly raised by the proof and notice has been provided. Tenn. Code Ann.
		provides that notice of intent to rely upon the defense of insanity shall be made within the time provided for filing pretrial motions or at such time as the court may direct.
	www.tncrimlaw.com /TPI_Crim/40_16_b.htm (533 words)

	Insanity defense - Wex (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The court acquitted M'Naghten "by reason of insanity," and he was placed in a mental institution for the rest of his life.
		The M'Naghten rule became the standard for insanity in the United States and the United Kingdom, and is still the standard for insanity in almost half of the states.
		The Durham rule states "that an accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act was the product of mental disease or mental defect." The Durham rule was eventually rejected by the federal courts, because it cast too broad a net.
	www.law.cornell.edu /wex/index.php/Insanity_defense (767 words)

	Legal Definition of Insanity Defense
		DEFENSE, INSANITY - A criminal defense asserting that at the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offense, the defendant, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts.
		U.S.C. A person is insane, and is not responsible for criminal conduct if, at the time of such conduct, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, he was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts.
		Mental disease or defect does not otherwise constitute a defense; the person has the burden of proving the defense of insanity by clear and convincing evidence.
	www.lectlaw.com /def/d029.htm (204 words)

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