This means that high-profile cases that successfully use the insanity defense will likely generate criticism of the plea, even in those instances where its application was justified. In this regard, Cromier reports that, "The details of the insanity defense is one area of the law that has been deeply impacted by specific cases (generally when the public backlashes against a defendant who has successfully used the defense)" (p. 130). In particular, the criticisms generated by the John Hinckley case catapulted the debate over the insanity defense to the national forefront (Cormier, 2010). In response to growing criticisms concerning the use of the insanity defense in the John Hinckley trial, in 1984, Congress passed the Insanity Defense Reform Act (hereinafter "the Act") that codified several changes to federal law as follows:
1. The Act provided a new standard for insanity, allowing defendants to offer, as an affirmative defense, evidence that at the time they committed the crime, they were unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of their actions.
2. The Act shifted the burden of persuasion from the prosecution to the defendants, who then had to prove their insanity by clear and convincing evidence.
3. The Act provided for a verdict of "not guilty by reason of insanity" in addition to the two traditionally accepted verdicts of guilty and not guilty.
4. The Act established a federal procedure for commitment of defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity (Ellias, 1995, p. 1063).
There are some important distinctions under the law between "innocent," "not guilty," and "not guilty by reason of insanity" that must be taken into account as well. In this regard, Black's Law Dictionary defines "innocent" as being "free from guilt" (p. 789) and "not guilty" as a "the form of the verdict in criminal cases where the jury acquits the defendant" (p. 1061). This means that courts do not find defendants "innocent"...
If someone is mentally weak in any way, such as those who would be eligible for the insanity plea, sending them to prison would be very dangerous indeed, for they would be more likely to be influenced into being worse criminals. Additionally, those with disabilities, physical or mental, are even more likely than the general population to the raped and sexually abused behind bars. Evidence shows that one out
Hinkley was obsessed with the movie Taxi Driver, in which the main character -- a drifter like himself -- saves a teenage prostitute from her pimp through violence. Before his assassination attempt, Hinkley wrote a letter to Foster detailing how he was going to attempt to kill the president to win her attention (he had already sent her poems and love letters). Hinkley refused to cooperate with his defense attorneys
If the Texas legislature would consider the addition of a volitional provision, no matter what form they might choose, would mark a substantial improvement to what presently exists. Such addition would represent a modernization in attitude and would allow the law in Texas to comport more closely with the prevailing societal views on mental health. Those with severe mental health issues deserve the opportunity of having their conditions treated. Lacking
Insanity evaluations represent the most challenging forensic assessments in the criminal domain" (Rogers, 2008, p.126). This is due to the fact that insanity evaluations require the psychologist to assess whether a defendant had a mental illness at the time that an offense was committed, and, whether that mental illness was related to the commission of the crime in a way that would make the defendant "insane" under applicable state
The Insanity Defense: Exploring Legal and Ethical Dimensions Introduction The insanity defense is a controversial legal strategy that allows individuals accused of committing a crime to claim that they were not mentally capable of understanding the nature of their actions or distinguishing right from wrong at the time of the offense. This defense is predicated on the belief that individuals suffering from severe mental illness or disorder should not be held criminally
This new reformulation of the insanity defense, a kind of a fusion of the earlier M'Naghten and Durham tests, was intended to be a less constrictive version of the right-wrong and irresistible impulse tests. Today, "most states in the union allow this 'right-wrong' test and some states also allow defendants to argue that that they understood their behavior was criminal but were unable to control it. This is sometimes
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