An example would be of a man well known and hated throughout the state of Colorado, Mr. James Holmes. Mr. Holmes shot up the Aurora mall Cinema on the night of July 20th 2012.While on trial, it was no surprise to me that he was facing death penalty charges. What did surprise me was the fact that he wanted to plead insanity. It is not fair for those who truly are mentally ill and have been diagnosed with it for years opposed to James Holmes where he never had records of having such type of illness. It is smart, but not fair.
The defendant must be competent to stand trial, therefore, must be able to understand the process of the trial, mentally stable enough to interact with the counsels for their defense. The defendant must also prove to the jury at the time of the offense the criminal act was a result of mental disease or mental defect (Montaldo, 2014). The defense should have convincing evidence and preponderance evidence the defendant was mentally ill, by undergoing testing conducted by a psychiatrist to determine the defendant’s mental state at the time the crime was committed. The medical expert would have to disclose to the judge and jury the defendant did not understand their actions were illegal. The instability of the defendant could have been, however, with the proper treatment they could recover.
The ruling clearly indicated his mental health diagnosis, yet, the ruling allowed for his sentencing to still have the death penalty consideration. (Hughes, 2015) The nuance is created when looking at competency and criminal or deviant behavior. Mental illness with undefined capacity is such a large variable. If this ruling were to hold true with any mental health diagnosis, a large percentage of the population could commit crimes without facing stiff punishment under the umbrella of incompetency. There are varying degrees of mental illness and lessened capacity, there must be a line as to accountability instead of excused behaviors.
In the case of Stephanie Benton, I saw this with my own eyes. The convicted killer hears his possible sentence to death for his malicious acts of crime and shows no remorse for her life, just his own. Since his conviction there have been 81 court dates rescheduled to go forth with his death penalty
In a criminal trial , pleading guilty ``by reason of insanity ' is one possible defense by which the egregiousness of the criminal actions having been committed may indeed become mitigated , indeed , sometimes ,even exonerated completely when time comes for sentencing . ``Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI ) is a defense whereby the accused argue that they are not culpable for breaking the law, as they were mentally ill or suffered from some other aberrant diminished mental capacity at the time of the crime’s commission. Common examples of what could plausibly produce diminished mental capacity within persons would include, but by no means be limited to, psychotic breaks, mental breakdowns (nervous collapse, schizophrenic psychosis,
It is therefore, justified that Mr. Dents is mentally unstable and should receive psychiatric care rather than go to prison (Ciolino, 2000). If the presented evidence show doubts about an individual’s sanity, then there is a need to establish sanity to the accused individual (Cole, 2008). The burden of proof is used to prove to the defense with clear and convincing evidence. Defendants
Argumentative Essay In the United Kingdom, Timothy Evans was tried and executed in 1950 for the murder of his baby daughter Geraldine. An official inquiry conducted 16 years later determined that it was Evans's fellow tenant, serial killer John Reginald Halliday Christie, who was responsible for the murder. Evans was pardoned posthumously following this, in 1966. Derek Bentley was a mentally challenged young man who was executed in 1953, also in the United Kingdom. He was convicted of the murder of a police officer during an attempted robbery despite the fact that it was his accomplice who fired the gun, and Bentley was under arrest at the time of the shooting.
[2][page needed] Mary herself says she was subjected to repeated sexual abuse, her mother forcing her from the age of four to engage in sexual acts with men. [2][page needed] The killings On 25 May 1968, the day before her 11th birthday, Mary Bell strangled four-year-old Martin Brown in a derelict house. [1] She was believed to have committed this crime alone. Between that time and a second killing, she and a friend, Norma Joyce Bell (no relation), aged 13, broke into and vandalised a nursery in Scotswood, leaving notes that claimed responsibility for the killing. The police dismissed this incident as a prank.
You cannot leave a mentally ill person the way they are because they might hurt themselves or harm others. There a defendants with mental illnesses. There are defendants who lack the mental ability to know what is right from what is wrong. “The insanity defense should be used for those who really had little or no control over their actions because they couldn't live up to acceptable behavior standards (Criminal Law Process, 1).” As stated before, people who have serious mental illnesses need all the help they can get. We cannot blame them from not knowing what is wrong from what is right.
The insanity defense in criminal trials are claims that the offender should not be held responsible for their actions due to a mental illness. Their argument is that they shouldn't be given the full criminal punishment for crimes committed, because the actions were committed during a time of a mental health episode. The defendant claiming insanity is required to undergo a mental evaluation, and if they are found not guilty by the reason of insanity, the defendant is usually committed to a psychiatric facility, instead of a prison. Which diagnosis the defendant has is not as important as to how it affected their capability to carry out the crime (Reid, 2000). The “insanity plea” raises several issues, and is one of the most misunderstood