Insanity Defense Essay

Picture this: It is July 17, 1988; it seems like a regular summer day and instead of going to bed you decide to stay up to until your daughter comes back from her boyfriend’s house. She seemed a little later than usual and didn’t come home at 11:30 like she was supposed to. A little after 12:30 you get a call from the police, your teenage daughter has been shot and killed along with three others on Old Salisbury Road. The teenager was Crystal Cantrell and that story was her mother’s, Linda Cantrell. Thanks to the shooter, Michael Hayes, Crystal will never have children, marry, or even go to college. Michael Hayes has a family now, something he denied Crystal from ever having; he is also a free man because he had a successful Insanity Defense.

It is an excuse defense, it lets the defendant admit to committing the crime, but claims they weren’t responsible for those acts at the time. It’s called Insanity Defense even though the term “Insanity” is not psychological. This defense has been used since early 14th century England, known as the ”good or evil” test. It was given to children under the age of seven to see if they can recognize good or bad actions. Then it transferred into “Wild Beast” Defense in 1724; that defense proposed that the person was acting like a wild beast, not a person. In England during the 19th century courts had to use the “Right and Wrong” test, the jury had to decide if the defendant comprehended what they did was wrong at the time and if they understood the outcome of their actions. That was later named in 1843, the M’Naghten Rule. There are many types of Insanity Defense in England, but the US has more, we have 51 types of defense; one for each state law and one for each federal one. Some states only allow mens rea defenses, which is when someone lacks the knowledge of what they did was wrong. While other states only allow actus rea defenses, where the defendant lacks the ability to not commit the