Insanity Plea Research Paper

“You must plead insanity. You must give the jury a way out. You must show them a way to find him not guilty if they are so inclined. If they’re sympathetic, if they want to acquit, you must provide them with a defense they can use to do it. It makes no difference if they believe the insanity crap. That’s not important in the jury room (Grishman 107)”. The insanity plea is used for a wide variety of cases. Part of the outcome is that the accused convicts of the cases believed that they were legally insane while committing the crime. Furthermore, a majority of the insanity pleas is rejected which makes it extremely rare to follow through. Through such cases, the insanity plea is commonly used as an excuse to prevent themselves from going to prison. …show more content…
A commonly known case that involved the insanity plea was Phillip Garrido and Nancy Garrido, who allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted Jaycee Dugard for 18 years. During the trial, his attorney proclaimed Garrido was mentally ill who did it since he allegedly heard the voices of angels. Ultimately, the insanity plea did not work and he was sentenced to approximately 431 years in prison. Taken from this case, the insanity plea was used in order to have Garrido seek a mental institution rather than going to prison for life. However, the problems lie about whether or not Garrido was actually insane from keeping her hostage for 18 years. By using the insanity plea it would try to provide that his hearing of angels is what caused him to commit this act. However, the 21-year-old presented that,"To you, Phillip, I say that I have always been a thing for your own amusement. I hated every second of every day of 18 years because of you and the sexual perversion you forced on me," (Martinez 1). Based on this testimony, it shows how much damage he caused to her. Whether it was willingly or not, the evidence needs to show that angels caused him to sexually assault her. It was also clear the insanity plea was inappropriate