These tests were used to determine if a defendant was able to decipher what was “good from evil” or “right from wrong”. It wasn’t until the mid-1800’s when the insanity defense changed again with the M’Naghten case. In 1843, M’Naghten shot and killed Edward Drummond, private secretary to Peel, because he thought Drummond was Peel. The defenses argument was that M’Naghten was not guilty because he had mental delusions which caused him to act in the manner that he did. This created the M’Naghten rule, which held that a man is not responsible for his criminal acts, when, because of a “disease of the mind,” he does not know the “nature and quality” of his acts or does not know they are “wrong.” The courts used the M’Naghten rule for some time as the determination factor in cases where the insanity defense was their plea.
In this speech I am going to tell you about the types of insanity defense that are used in court cases, the process that goes into verifying a criminals sanity, and the issues that come about after a plea is entered. Now I’m going to explain what insanity is and the different types associate with it. The insanity defense plea as defined in law journals is a defense that’s asserted by the accused in a criminal prosecution as a way to avoid liability for a commission of a crime because at the time of the crime the person did not appreciate the nature or quality or wrongfulness of the acts. Cognitive insanity is the most common variation of an insanity defense that goes through the court system. This is where the defendant during the time of the crime suffered from a mental disease that impaired his/her psychological ability to see the wrongfulness of the act they committed.
Another case example is Pagett (1983) where the defendant was found guilty for the muder of his girlfriend a had it not been ‘but for’ his actions she would not have been killed by police bullets. Secondly it needs to proved that the defendant’s conduct was the legal cause of the consequence. Under this principle, there is the de minimus rule. In such cases there may be more than one act contributing to the consequence, some of which may have been caused by people other than the defendant. The rule is that the defendant can be found guilty if his conduct was more than a ‘minimal’ cause of the consequence, but the defendants conduct need not be the substantial cause.
Criminal Defense Case Analysis Lina Webb CJA 354-Criminal Law Instructor: Stephanie Smith December 20, 2013 Criminal Defense Case Analysis The insanity defense is a very controversial one. Throughout history there have been many shows, books, and movies displaying insanity to avoid being convicted of murder. The insanity defense is used in-frequently and is not a popular one and usually only used in cases that are very serious. Society seems to be becoming more open to the idea of defenses that were once thought of with a less serious tone. Justification and excuse both play an interesting role in the criminal justice field.
Jury Nullification Paper John Doe CJA 344 August 2012 Instructor Name Jury Nullification Paper Jury Nullification and it’s affects on the criminal justice system. Jury Nullification is a process that allows jurors to acquit an individual, even when they are technically guilty, and not warrant for punishment. In essence the juror are suggesting that the law in general is unfair or in a particular case. Jury Nullification “Is rooted in English common law and is sometimes used in cases, in which the jury believes a prosecutor enforced an unpopular law or a jury sympathizes with the defendant” (McNamara & Burns, 2009, p. 265). Because of perceived mistreatment of African American by the criminal justice system, Jury Nullification has become controversial because a number of well-known African American scholars encouraged Black jurors to acquit Black defendants (McNamara & Burns, 2009).
Following that Andrea Yates submitted a plea of guilty for reason of insanity. The criminal case a criminal defendant can claim insanity by simply saying that he or she should not be held criminally liable for the damages committed from his particular crime because he was insane at the time of occurrence. Acording to CBS News (2009) "Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist, testified for the defense that she did not know killing the children was wrong because she was trying to save them from hell.” Now because of the evidence used and the defense of insanity, the cases outcome did not meet very many people’s expectations, to include my own. Many felt that her being sentenced to a mental institute was an injustice at its finest. Acording to CBS News (2009) "No one should believe that she is getting off easy.
James Wetzel CRMJ 101-52 Online Jury Nullification-Article 1 Jury Nullification occurs when a jury returns a verdict against the proof of guilt because the jurors believe the law to be unjust or unjustly applied. As a result, the defendant is declared innocent, or is given a lesser penalty, even though without an act of jury nullification they would have been found guilty. While this all seems great, jury nullification is a source of much debate in today’s society. Some maintain that it is an important safeguard or last resort again the wrongful punishment and imprisonment. While others often view it as a violation of the right of a jury and undermining that law.
Since insanity is defined so arbitrarily, lawyers can protect their clients from their punishments with relative ease by dragging out the legal process for years at a time by using the insanity defense. To be protected with the insanity defense in many states, a criminal must take the M'Naghten test: failure to determine right from wrong deems the criminal insane (Cornell University Law School). Although some argue that people with mental illnesses cannot be held accountable for their actions, the greater concern should be for the overall safety for The United States of America because criminals who plead insanity can be a danger when released, legal definitions of insanity vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, Supreme Court has upheld four states' abolishing of insanity defense, and there is incomplete research on insanity. Shafer !2 Insane criminals who are found not guilty by reason of insanity are sent to mental hospitals to rehabilitate and treat their illness. The problem is that the criminals who are sent to a hospital and become "cured" could be a danger to society.
This code states that the person is capable for using this defense in the case of mental insanity if the do not have the ability to appreciate the fact that they have committed a crime and what that entails or that they are unable to conform to the moral and legal codes of society. (ALI Moral Penal Code (1962)) In regards to this case, I feel that the defendant did know what he was doing but do to the fact that he was either under the influence of the drugs at the time and dor he was mentally unstable and believed that he was saving her rather than killing her when he committed the crime. The reason that I feel that we can use this defense is the fact that the defendant ranted about aliens and the fact that he was god when the officers went to arrest him. He also kept a journal until he decided the time was right to perform the "saving" of the
hate crime Homosexuality and Hate Crimes The word hate crime was never in our vocabulary until the 1980’s, but that doesn’t mean hate crimes were not being committed. Hate crimes have been happening since as far back as World War I, this is when the Ku Klux Klan first started appearing and gaining the nation’s attention. A hate crime is defined as being crimes of hatred and prejudice, which is motivated by a group that the victim is affiliated with. A hate crime doesn't always mean that the offender hates the victim. Depending on how we define “hate crime” will depend on how much there is out there.