Defense Essays

required to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The most common criminal defenses fall under two categories, excuse and justification. An excuse is when a person admits to committing a criminal act but believes that he or she can’t be held responsible because there was no criminal content. Some excuses used in court today are; mental disorder, infancy (age), mistake of fact, mistake of law and automatism. In justification defenses, the accused admits to wrongdoing but argues that he or she should be

were mentally ill, and not being held responsible for the action they had done. Most people believe that the NGRI verdict is better than the guilty verdict, when really that’s not the case. There are many myths that the public holds about the NGRI defense which can be a serious issue in search for help with ones’ health. Because of this, it is important that the public is educated and non-bias when it comes to deciding a

Insanity Defense: villain or victim? A University of Florida law professor and former prosecutor, Bob Dekle, states, “In general, insanity is a desperation defense. You haven’t gotten anything else, so you act crazy.” He claims this after Eddie Ray Routh from Stephenville, Texas commits a murder while having a psychotic episode. Within two hours of checking through his trial, the jury found Routh guilty. This stirred up a collection of arguments whether people should return as guilty but mentally

of this essay is to critically analyze the current status of the use of insanity as a defense within a court of law. In order to do so this essay will do the following ****. This essay will attempt to draw a conclusion as to whether or not the current legislation in place is sufficient to ensure that society is protected. In the recent decades within Ireland it had been called that the laws governing the defense of insanity were to be reformed. The factors that have led to the slowness are low

may use mental illness as a defense. This is called an insanity plea or insanity defense. What the insanity defense does is try to give the alleged perpetrator a fair trial. At least in extreme cases, society agrees with this principle.The Insanity defense is probably one of the most controversial of all criminal defense strategies, and at the same time is one of the least used. In many cases when it has been used it has tended to cause public debate. The insanity defense confirms that the criminal

As a type of defenses of excuse that completely exonerates a defendant from conviction, insanity defense argues that defendant is not responsible for their actions due to the presence of psychiatric disorders that influence the normal functions of judgment and cognition. However, the prerequisite of the insanity defense, the insanity is hard to prove in criminal cases because the definition of psychiatric disorders is tricky, elusive and vague. To prevent its abuse, the successful exoneration based

The Insanity Defense Christian Hopkins Intro to the Legal Process 1020 L01 Leo Rowe March 15th, 2017 The insanity defense is used by criminals who plead that they are mentally insane to avoid a more serious sentence. In most of the insanity defense cases, the defendant typically has some sort of mental issue during the time of the crime that caused them to commit the crime. “A criminal defendant who is found to have been legally insane when he or she committed a crime may be found not guilty

Insanity Defense.

that tried to use the insanity defense. The role that the insanity defense played in conjunction with psychology was that the psychologist would have to choose diverse ways of stating that a defendant was insane. A long with providing expert testimony at trail or competence hearings the psychologists would inform

the lack of some mental capacity, rather than an avenue to be exploited to escape responsibility or punishment. Undoubtedly, the insanity defense is a multipart kind of case in proving that a person does not understand the nature of the unlawful act he/she was involved. It has developed considerably from being a mitigating factor in criminal cases to being a defense through the development of various tests adopted in different cases. The case requires that the accused person was suffering from mental

have banned the use of the insanity defense. It is misused to escape prison and extends the trial due to how difficult it is to prove. The insanity defense states that the person who has committed the crime was or is unable to differentiate between right or wrong. It is believed that the mentally ill cannot be deterred by punishment and that it will protect society if they are treated rather than imprisoned. Many people are suspicious that the insanity defense is easily abused and manipulated by

In a court case dealing with murder such as the issue with the Clutter family, the Insanity plea was brought into thought to test if Perry and Dick were mentally stable during that time. By definition, the insanity plea is an argument stating the defense was not responsible for their actions due to a psychiatric disease at the time of the act, consequently, making him/her unaware of the occurring actions moreover the later consequences. In the book, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the main characters

delusions and hallucinations are not associated with NPD and SPD, the prosecutors were able to argue that his delusions regarding Jodie Foster were not unintentionally brought on, but instead, they were false hopes that Hinckley conducted himself. The defense attorneys and the prosecutors spent an immense amount of time analyzing Hinckley, and attempting to determine the type of mental disorder he had. Hinckley was ultimately diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, and in every attempt to be

Insanity Defense The insanity defense has the notion that some individuals are mentally disturbed that they are unable to understand their actions and it would be a violation to hold them responsible. Smith states that the insanity defense is a plea used by the defense to show lack of mental potential of a person when committing a crime. (Smith, 2012) This reasoning is based on willful intent, which is very essential to an insane person. This means they cannot form such intent. However, mental

In his journal article, The Insanity Defense: The New Loophole he said, “in Pennsylvania and most other states, defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity are diverted to the mental health system, from which they are usually released within a relatively brief time, often unsupervised

Beneficial Defense In keeping the insanity defense as it stands the benefits outweigh the problems. This defense fixes problems with the mentally insane and leads to curing more of the mentally ill. Viewing the defense as a benefit seems to fit if it helps more people than it harms, although other views have been brought against it opposing the defense. The jurisdictions that have kept the defense see it rarely and take it as a claim of innocence. The innocent people who have severe mental

The 1984 Insanity Defense Reform Act was passed by Congress after an infamous trial that shocked the United States. United States v. Hinckley was notorious because it was one of the rare cases where the insanity defense worked and the defendant was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The result of this case caused a huge public outcry against the insanity defense. Debate began to form over how to amend the insanity defense. This paper will critically analyze three scholarly journals. Each journal

The insanity defense is also known as the mental order defense. In the criminal justice system, a defendant that been evaluated to be legally insane when he or she committed the crime in some states may be found not guilty because of insanity (Schouten, 2012). This does vary, and it depends on the state laws and regulation when it comes to a case like this. However, in some cases the person may be found guilty and is sentenced to less time. For example, the time frame for murder is 20-25 years, but

be used as a defense in a case. These rules consist of presumption of sanity, disease of mind, nature and quality of the act, knowledge that the act was wrong, and strict liability. This particular case

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