Insanity Essay

Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity: A Look into the Insanity Defense On Friday, March 3, 1843, the trial of The Queen v. Daniel McNaughton (West, Walk 12) began. The verdict of this trail changed the way the civilized world views the criminally insane. People who were criminally insane went from being viewed as evil and wild beasts to people who could not be held accountable for their actions at the time of the crime they committed. As time progressed, the insanity defense became an acceptable

with the verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. About a year before, Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan because he was infatuated with the famous actress Jodie Foster. He thought shooting Reagan would impress her and lead her to fall in love with him. After the verdict was announced, the public responded with dismay because they felt as though Hinckley should pay for what he had done. Following the uproar, the United States revised and limited the insanity plea with the hopes that fewer people would

say that they did it because they are mentally ill? It is wrong for a person to get out of their punishment for their action by using the insanity plea. If someone commits a crime and has no previous record of being insane, how could they become mentally ill? The only reason people use the insanity plea is to get off the hook for committing a crime. The insanity defense plea is probably one of the most controversial of all the criminal defense strategies, and at the same time is one of the most used

This is the history of the insanity defense and the pros and cons of the defense. The insanity defense can be traced back to the earliest days of a structured government. The first recorded use of the insanity defense dates back to 1772 BC. Hammurabi’s code had exceptions for the insane. The Roman Empire found people to be non-compos mentis, which meant without mastery of mind and not guilty for their offences. Starting in 1313, the Bible’s references to the “good and evil” test are used as

Over the years the abuse of insanity plea, has troubled our American Justice System in our world today. The growth in this defense has increased so much that the expansion has asked the question; whether or not insanity plea is a worthy and justified defense to be used in the courts. The Insanity defense is when a criminal defendant can be found to have been legally insane when that defendant committed the crime they did at the time. In some cases, the criminal defendant pleads insane and gets a

reason of insanity, thus allowing her to enter an institution for both treatment and counseling. In 2013, after three years of institutionalization, Jennifer Bigham was released to reenter society as a free woman. As deemed by multiple professionals and doctors Phil Trompetter and Jocelyn Roland, she was no longer a threat to herself or society, and would be able to reclaim the life that she had so viciously lost during her psychotic break three years prior. Her utilization of the insanity plea, which

This paper is going to explain the research that I have done on the insanity defense in general, my own opinion on the use of pleading insanity, a recent case on the successful pleading of insanity to prevent a defendant from being criminally responsible, and the positives and negatives of the insanity defense. I am also going to do my best to explain what should happen to a criminal defendant after they are declared by the courts to be insane, as well citing all of my research. The first article

Criminal law the insanity defense Introduction In the United States, one of the defenses available to criminal defendants in most states is not guilty by reason of insanity. The availability of that defense is subject to state law, ever since a 1994 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the decision of individual states to abolish that defense (Martin, 1998; Schmalleger, 2009, p. 146). In principle, there is a logical or fundamental ethical basis for the philosophy of allowing those

“They smelled too bad” was the response when saying he would never have intercourse with the dead bodies he dug out of graves (Yoong). He pleaded not guilty by insanity. Ed Gein filled his home in Connecticut with human body parts; he assembled a suit made of human skin, a belt that was made of female nipples and a lampshade formed from a human face. Gein was interested in skinning people and also the female parts. On November 1957 Bernice Worden disappeared from her local hardware store (Yoong)

current American Justice System has many issues, one in particular is the insanity defense. Defendants have used this plea in courts for many years, which have led to massive debates. The insanity plea weighs heavily in our society. A society that demands for justice. However, some people praise it as if it was sent from the heavens above. On the other hand, there are many people who view it as an unnecessary evil. “The insanity defense is rooted in a basic principle of justice; this it is unfair to