Insanity Defense Essay - 1,473 words

Insanity Defense The insanity defense is primarily based on the concept of insanity, which shows the extent to which a person accused of a crime can avoid criminal responsibility due to mental disease. The terms for this type of defense can be found in special instructions given by the trial judge to the jury at the close of a certain case. These particular instructions can be potentially drawn from different rules and used in the determination of a degree of mental illness, which also influences whether the person will be sentenced to jail or not. Psychologists determine mental ability of a person in order to find is the person really sick or just claim to have mental disorders. However, the insanity defense had crated a lot of problems due to before mentioned reasons, because even today with all the scientific development it is still hard to find whether the person has mental problems or not. Therefore, due to the impossibility of proper diagnosis of insanity there is no actual need to have a law of using insanity defense. On the other hand, some people can be sick and it would be unfair to sentence them to prison. For this reason, insanity defense had become on of major issues of todays society.


That is why such a cases are widely covered in newspapers and on television. Insanity, however, is not a medical term. For this reason, mental illness and insanity should not be viewed as the same thing. It had been proved by psychologists that mental illness could rarely constitute to insanity. Insanity is rather a mental deficiency. The widely accepted concepts of mental illness and insanity bring up a question in a conflict between what are termed legalistic criminology and scientific criminology. It is just the same as punishment vs.


treatment, prisons vs. hospitals etc. However, it had been recognized that it is usually not acceptable to apply psychological theories to law. Mens rea, which is mental act, lies in the center of legal use of insanity concept. The problem is that is too difficult to completely, and adequately analyze this mens rea. I order actually to find out whether a person is insane or not, lawyers should apply some of the rules that psychologists use.


The main criteria for judging insanity are Irresistible Impulse Test according to the MNaghten Rule. However, these rules in their majority are not reliable. The MNaghten Rule is known as the right-wrong test. It came to use after the 1843 trial of Daniel MNaghten, who argued that he was not responsible for his criminal actions, because he was affected by delusions while killing a victim. The M'Naghten Rule reads: A defendant may be excused from criminal responsibility if at the time of the commission of the act the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from a disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and the quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know that he was doing what was wrong. Thus, according to the rule, a person is insane if he or she is unable to distinguish between what is right and wrong as a result of some mental disability.


Finally, the judging of insanity is laid on the jury, which actually decides whether a person is guilty or notread sane or insane. Well, in my opinion it is a big mistake, because even professionals cannot determine whether a person is mentally ill or not. The pressure on the jury is quite strong, because all the smart lawyers can tell different stories and can make almost anyone to believe that the defendant is insane. Besides, there is a big pressure from the media. One of recent cases widely covered by media was the case of Andrea Yates. She was found to be guilty after murdering five of her children by drowning them in the bathtub. The woman believed that her children were possessed by devil.


This actually was the primary reason her lawyer claimed for the proof of her insanity. The woman was actually mentally sick, however prosecutors had claimed that she was absolutely sane of what she was doing (in my opinion only insane person can do such a thingkilling all own children). For a jury it took less than four hours to reject Yates insanity plea. The jury found her guilty of murder. Another case that used insanity plea was the case of Heidn ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: insanity defense, insanity, mental illness, jury, medical history

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