Essays on Insanity Defense

Morally speaking, it is a popular belief that it would be cruel to punish those who are found incompetent and are unable to comprehend the actions they have taken. Famous cases such as the Eddie Routh case ruling, Jeffrey Dahmer and the case of James Holmes cause many to have a negative view on the insanity defense. People believe that criminals use this too often as an excuse to escape the punishment that is deserved or they fake mental illness. What they fail to acknowledge is that the ...

For many years now, society has accepted the need to distinguish between people charged with an offense who are responsible for their acts and those who are not. This is what we now call the insanity defense which was put in place to make that distinction for people with mental disabilities. Even though it is greatly debated, the federal government and most states accept an insanity defense. The insanity defense is a controversial and highly debated subject because it has allowed those who ...

In several legal systems, the criminal charge needs both an immoral act as well as a guilty state of mind since one of them is not sufficient to judge someone. For instance, an individual judged to be insane is not normally handled a similar way as a non-insane individual who committed an equal offense act. The processes, elements, and conditions of utilizing insanity to get out of prison differ extensively across jurisdictions.According to Meynen, other states have eliminated the utilize of ...

Every day a crime is committed in the United States by citizens who may or may not deserve jail time for their actions. Every day in the United States, the mental health crisis is growing. There are times when these two issues overlap and there is controversy on how to deal with this problem. For criminal defense of the mentally ill, there are laws regarding insanity, court action, and punishment of mentally ill offenders written into state law and court codes for conduct. Beginning in the ...

For many years it has been quite difficult to differentiate criminality and mental disorders. Many cases have led to uproar on the basis of the mental status of the accused raising the question of insanity defense. Although all criminal activities committed are not as a result of mental dysfunction or disorder, it is worth noting that a good number of people have turned to criminal life as a result of insanity. How then do courts, lawyers and other law makers and judges come to conclusion ...

The insanity defense is a plea to a criminal charge of not guilty because of mental disease or defect (Gardner et al, 2016). This form of defense is also known as an excuse defense where a defendant denies criminal responsibility and avoids a harsh punishment by claiming to have a mental disorder. Although most people believe the insanity defense results in an offender “getting away”, the defense is risky (Gardner et al. 2016). An insanity defense is a rarely successful phenomenon, used in ...

The criminal justice system is flawed, and it is letting many people take advantage of it. One reason they can do that is a defense tactic called the criminal insanity defense. The criminal insanity defense is used in court to lesser the blame on a criminal defendant by pleading they were mentally ill at the time of the crime. (Prerost, 2017) This is also known as the “not guilty by reason of insanity plea (NGIR)”. (Prerost, 2017) To successfully pass the criminal insanity defense, the ...

Rules created by the govt. or social institution to control conduct is termed law which shapes politics, economics and society in various ways and is a mediator of relations between people. Also different theorist explain as J Austin defines law as power, Hart defines law as authority and Dworkin defines law as moral authority. Morality could be a concept referring to certain normative pattern which aim at the augmentation of fine and reduction of the evil in individual and social life. ...

The insanity defense plea is a petitionused in trials when a defendant claims that they are legally insane and were not capable of differentiating right from wrong at the time of the crime. A good case is the Aurora Theater Shooting,where the preliminary hearing for James Eagan Holmes, the supposed shooter who murdered 12 and injured 58 during July 20, 2012, is more than ever raising questions about the insanity defense. The public often does not understand an important fact in insanity cases. ...

The insanity defense can be characterized as the offender, who has mental defects or diseases can influence his ability to form mens rea – to have a guilty intent to commit a crime. It means that the defendant has committed the crime but there is lack of culpability, inability to think rationally, to define wrongfulness and consequences of actions performed, and to control the behavior due to mental illness. The following forms of the insanity defense are identified in the United States: The ...