How do you determine if someone is criminally insane Insanity defense is the defense that the defendant is not responsible for their actions during an episode of mental illness Very Brief History of The Insanity Defense ID: 578191
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Slide1
Criminal InsanitySlide2
How do you determine if someone is criminally insane?
Insanity defense is the defense that the defendant is not responsible for their actions during an episode of mental illnessSlide3
(Very Brief) History of The Insanity Defense
Insanity as a concept has existed since the ancient Greeks and Romans
In colonial America a delusional woman named Dorothy
Talbye
was hanged in 1638 for murdering her daughter, there was no distinction between insanity and criminal behavior in America yet
Criminal Lunatics Act 1800 mandated that criminals (in England) deemed insane at the time of their crime remain detained for as long as those in power deemed fit
M’Naughten
rules of 1843 were a similar idea
Ford V. Wainwright 1986 the US Supreme Court upheld the decision that the insane cannot be executed
Controversy? You bet. Mainly lies in the philosophical differences folks have surrounding insanity.Slide4
The Insanity Defense
What are the legal standards for insanity?
Each
state has
its own statute setting out the standard for determining whether a defendant was legally insane, and therefore not responsible, at the time his crime was committed
.
M’Naughten
Rule:
At the time the act was committed the defendant was laboring under a disease of the mind that made it so they did not know what they were doing was wrong (the “right/wrong” test)
Three
states -- Montana, Idaho, and Utah -- do not allow the insanity defense at all. Slide5
What happens to these folks?
What happens to a mentally ill defendant who is acquitted of a violent crime?
According to the American Psychiatric Association, studies show that defendants acquitted by reason of insanity are
likely to spend as much or more time confined in a psychiatric institution as they would have if convicted and sentenced to jail or prison for the same crime
. One study determined insanity defense
acquittees
frequently spend
twice as much time
institutionalized as defendants convicted of a similar offense spend in correctional
facilities
Commitment and release procedures vary from state to state, case to case. The hospital is generally in charge of a patient’s release
(much like in the case of
McMurphy
…)Slide6
Andrea Yates
As a table group, you must decide:
Do you
agree or disagree
with the 40 year sentence without parole that Yates was given? Why or why not?Slide7
Literary Connection - Medea
In Greek mythology Medea is a sorceress who kills her own children to avenge the betrayal of her husband Jason when he leaves her for another womanSlide8
Tortorici
Case
You have 10 minutes to read the excerpt from either the DEFENSE or the PROSECUTION of the
Tortorici
case.
You will then pow-wow with your partner for 2 minutes, comparing notes about the important points of the case
You then have 10 minutes to debate the guilt of
Tortorici
. Your table group must come to a conclusion about the guilt of
Tortorici
and provide evidence why!Slide9
Hinckley
1981
, Hinckley developed an obsession with the movie Taxi Driver, in which Jodie Foster stars as a child prostitute and Robert
Deniro
plays Travis
Bickle
, who plots to assassinate the presidential candidate in the film.
He grew obsessed with Jodie Foster, began stalking her
Eventually
he decided to attempt an assassination on President Ronald Reagan. As the president left the Hilton Hotel, he shot six times at Reagan, wounding a few other people in the process. One of the bullets hit the president in the chest, but he survived the attempt.
Hinckley’s
defense team pled for insanity defense and succeeded, he was acquitted of all of his 13 charges of assault, murder and weapon counts
.Slide10
Public Reaction
Due to the high profile of the case,
the public perceived the insanity defense as a loophole in the legal system
which allowed a clearly guilty criminal to dodge incarceration. The controversy laid in the fact that prior to the assassination attempt, the insanity defense was only used in 2 percent of the felony cases and in those cases failed over 75 percent of the time. Nonetheless, most states were pressured to reenact reforms of legislation regarding the use of the insanity defenseSlide11
Other infamous insanity trials
Lorena
Bobbit
Jeffery
Dahmer
Sex, cannibalism, necrophilia, dismemberment
Showed symptoms of social withdrawal since childhood
Collected dead animals, would then dissect, dissolve, or mutilate them in various ways
Committed his first murder in 1978, bludgeoning to death a hitchhiker named Steven Hicks because “the guy wanted to leave and I didn’t want him to”
Committed 18 murders, stored their bodies in vats
Kept trophies such as human skulls and genitalia in his closet, save the biceps and human heart in in the freezer for later consumption
(Katy Perry?? “She eats your heart out. Like Jeffrey
Dahmer
”)
Dahmer
plead not guilty by reason of insanitySlide12
Dahmer
(cont’d)
Dahmer’s
plea was rejected and he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences in prison
The case was seen by many as the death of the insanity plea
Many contended that if a deranged criminal like
Dahmer
is rejected on the insanity plea, then no other criminal would qualify for the defense
Why do you think it is so hard to prove criminal insanity?
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Tomorrow:
What is the deal with the American obsession with serial killers?