Automatism In Criminal Law

Your Honor and Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, the defendant in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The tell-Tale Heart” is insane; using the McNaughton rule it will be proven that the Caretaker should be placed in a state hospital for the criminally insane. The McNaughton rule states that one has a mental disorder or disease that compels them to commit the crime, the accused can not resist the urge to commit the crime, and that he or she did not know what he/she was doing, and the Defendant did not understand that what he/she was doing was wrong/illegal. The Caretaker should be considered insane because he is trying to convince everyone that he is sane. This is evident when he says,”Ha!-would a madman have been so wise as this” (90). This proves that he is insane because he is trying to prove that he is not insane.

Oedipus demonstrates characteristics of anger and insanity. Oedipus believed he formed a royal family with his wife Jocasta, but little did he know Jocasta was actually his mother and he killed his father. Once Oedipus realized the traumatic event may be true he demanded for answers and seeked for witnesses. When the shepherd arrived, Oedipus

This is especially a concern in the case of murder and determining whether the defendant was legally insane or guilty, but mentally ill. These two scenarios can have very different outcomes whether the defendant will serve their time in prison or in a mental institution, but also on the length of the sentence. In the case of John DuPont, the jury had to determine whether DuPont was sane or legally insane at the time of the crime, but also whether he was mentally ill. After DuPont was later determined competent to stand trial (after months of treatment with antipsychotic medication), the jury was inundated with testimony that was able to establish patterns of DuPont’s behavior that did not necessarily prove he was insane, but could establish he was mentally ill. I concur with the opinions of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania that the triers of fact were correct in their verdict and the sentencing of DuPont was

In Harris v. Kreutzer, 271 Va. 188, the court has to consider if the action done by the doctor was outrageous. The patient sued the clinical psychologist for medical malpractice and intentional infliction of emotional distress. During the examination verbally abused her, raised his voice to her, stated she was "putting on a show," and accused her of being a faker and malingerer despite knowing she suffered from post-traumatic

He was tried in Milwaukee for the 15 counts of murder before Judge Laurence Gram. Jeffrey pleaded guilty on January 13th to the charges brought against him. However, defense experts argued that Dahmer was insane due to his necrophilia drive. Defense expert Dr. Fred Berlin testified that Dahmer was unable to conform his conduct at the time he committed the crimes because he was suffering from paraphilia or more specifically necrophilia. The prosecution rejected the defense’s argument that Dahmer suffered from necrophilia.

He had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, however three court appointed psychiatrist found him legally sane. On November 1, 1973 jury convened for approximately five hours before declaring Edmund Kemper III guilty. Kemper requested his sentence to be death, death by torture. Instead, Judge Harry F. Brauer indicted him of eight accounts of first degree murder and sentenced him seven years to life cc (concurrently) at the California Medical Facility. Many, including Edmund himself, believe his actions and crimes were caused by his disturbed childhood.

Dr. Mark Nolan, Senior Lecturer at ANU College of Law, says that the NGRI plea “enables defendants to avoid criminal liability and standard criminal punishment” (Nolan 8). The main disagreement with America is the focus whether if the “guilty defendant” pursues to misuse the “Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity” as an alternative to imprisonment or if the criminally accused was at the time of committing the crime “clinically insane” and in need psychotherapy. Therefore, during this discussion of opposing viewpoints concerning the insanity defense being misused or ethical are going to be

She begins by informing him that she, “poor Anne/Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughtered son”(10), is the speaker. Referring to herself using this title, Anne suggests the reason why she has become “poor Anne” is because she is mourning a slaughtered husband. Consequently, her grief has turned her into a wretched and miserable widow. After alerting his ghost of her presence, Anne informs him that the killer who slaughtered his son, is the same one who ended his life. She wails to King Henry’s ghost, that she “pour[s] the helpless balm of [her] poor eyes” (13), into the wounds that have let out his soul.

‘It was all right to shut him up, Mr Radley conceded, but insisted that Boo not be charged with anything: he was not a criminal’ p.12 Boo has been shut inside for 20 years, the stories about him are greatly exaggerated, for example Jem’s description of him ‘judging from his tracks’ p.14. Having been kept inside for that long it would not be surprising to find that he suffers from anxiety when in company. ‘Dill left us in early September to return to Meridian’ p.17 Dill is only with them outside of school term times. In a sense he becomes a means within the plot to allow Jem and Scout to communicate information to the reader which they otherwise would not need to verbalise. However, he is also an instigator of action, it is he who pushes for the outing of Boo

In this paper we will look at several cases in which the 8th Amendment has been used in my opinion unethically to justify everything from gender reassignment surgery to claiming that one was mentally insane in order to get out of facing the death penalty. Excessive Bail The 8th Amendment was written to protect against excessive bail, excessive fines, and the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment on someone accused of a crime (n.a., 2015). Bail varies from state to state; In the case below we see how a person accused of domestic assault is given what he believe is unfair bail and the court opinion of his claim. “Fields v. Henry County, Tennessee, 2012 WL 6097334 (6th Cir. December 10, 2012) Fields was charged with domestic assault.