Responsibility Assessment Scales (R-CRAS) there are too many variations among the states for them to be used universally (Costanzo & Krauss, 2015, p.192). Therefore, mental health professionals must attempt to evaluate past thinking and behaviors, as the defendant’s state of mind at the time of the assessment may be different than at the time of the crime. For example, in Miller’s case, her trial didn’t begin until eight months after she murdered her husband and had been undergoing treatment including medication. However, it is reasonable that due to her recent hospitalization and mental illness diagnosis a mental health professional may determine that Miller was insane at the time of the crime (Costanzo & Krauss, 2015, p. 191) but further evaluation of the details would need to occur before a determination could be relayed to the court.
An article entitled, Rationality, Insanity, and the Insanity Defense: Reflections on the Limits of Reason written by Theodore Y. …show more content…
The two cases explored by Blumoff (2015) within this article are of particular interest because they directly correlate with the need for the availability of an insanity defense. One case, previously mentioned, is the M’Naghten case in which the insanity defense is built upon. The other, State v. Andrea Yates, is a relatively recent case where in June of 2001 a devout Christian woman drowned her five children in the family bathtub, seeking redemption for them as she had become convinced that she was possessed by Satan (Blumoff, 2015, p. 180). Miller, too, was a devout Christian who murdered her own husband because she believed he was “working for the devil”. Yates, like Miller,
An article entitled, Rationality, Insanity, and the Insanity Defense: Reflections on the Limits of Reason written by Theodore Y. …show more content…
The two cases explored by Blumoff (2015) within this article are of particular interest because they directly correlate with the need for the availability of an insanity defense. One case, previously mentioned, is the M’Naghten case in which the insanity defense is built upon. The other, State v. Andrea Yates, is a relatively recent case where in June of 2001 a devout Christian woman drowned her five children in the family bathtub, seeking redemption for them as she had become convinced that she was possessed by Satan (Blumoff, 2015, p. 180). Miller, too, was a devout Christian who murdered her own husband because she believed he was “working for the devil”. Yates, like Miller,