Affirmative defense

“Today, over 50 percent of prison and jail inmates in the United States have a diagnosed mental illness, a rate nearly five times greater than that of the general adult population” (188). Prisons are not equipped with doctors, physiatrists or medications for the treatment and care these people need, an issue usually followed with violent reactions from poorly coping mentally ill. The cruel incarceration of the mentally ill decreases their ability to recover from the trauma they have survived and…

What War Does The book Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo is about the effect of war on a single man named Joe. He has gotten his face blown apart, which also causes him to go blind, deaf, dumb, lose his ability to smell and all of his limbs to be cut off. As Joe goes through his past, he feels himself becoming more and more insane, he feels like he is trapped inside his own mind and does not know how to get out. War can do this to people and even though sometimes it is necessary, it is…

Speech #1 Edward R. Murrow, a CBS reporter and war correspondent delivered a report from Buchenwald, Germany on April 16, 1945. He delivered this dialect upon seeing the atrocities committed by the Germans towards the Jews. He addresses the American people, describing the scene he had witnessed at this labor camp, which he found the scene to be so unbelievable that he is rendered speechless many times through out his speech. Murrow’s outrage is so apparent through-out his account, that it is…

1. Would you agree that Beckett’s Waiting for Godot perfectly encapsulates all the uncertainties of modernity? Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot belongs to the Theatre of the Absurd. The absence of a meaningful plot, of objective dialogues and of absolute certainty is the state of absurdity. Beckett utilizes absurdity to play around with the concept of existential nullity which saw man trapped in a hostile world. Human life is meaningless and this created a sense of alienation, despair and…

The play Hamlet and the film Pontypool both share the common theme that through the use of words one can become insane. This theme is supported by the use of diction found in both works, the most notable phraseology is repetition. Throughout the play Hamlet, repetition is often seen in two characters; the play’s main protagonist Hamlet, and a side character Polonius. During the play, Hamlet encounters his deceased father’s ghost who relays to Hamlet that he was murdered. After hearing this he…

Jeffrey has a long term mental disorder known as schizophrenia. Schizophrenia involves a breakdown in the relationship between feelings, reactions, and behaviors leading to a defective insight of inappropriate thoughts and feelings, being withdrawn from reality and having some individual relationships that involve fantasy and misconception. [1] This mental disorder may have a different result than others such as schizophrenia; paranoid, confused, withdrawn, or childlike behavior. However,…

Are Weapons of Mass Destruction Morally Justifiable? Weapons of Mass destruction have been the subject of debate for decades. Many people believe that WMDs are a good idea, and vital to a nations defence. However, there are many others who believe that they are a waste of money, incredibly dangerous and that they should all be destroyed. In order to form a full opinion on the matter, I will look at arguments from both sides of the debate, including views from religious groups. A…

states. An anti-ballistic missile treaty was first introduced by the United States at the 1967 Glassboro Summit Conference between two high level officials of the two states. The US held that ballistic missile defense could lead to an arms race, and that it may entice a state fielding the defense to strike first. Although the Soviet Union rejected this reasoning, following the proposal of the Sentinel and Safeguard decisions on US anti-ballistic missiles, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks…

By definition, automatism is where an external force takes control over the accused causing them to perform certain actions; however the instances where automatism is caused by internal factors and more often than not is associated with insanity. There are numerous examples in cases such as that of Bratty v A-G for NI [1963] AC 386 where the appellant killed a woman while giving her a ride and subsequently disposed of her body before returning to his residence. It was discovered that the…

American society. The insanity defense is a specific law which has gotten harder to prove. It is a defense used in the court of law to plead not guilty due to a mental state that does not allow the accuser to know what (s)he has done. American society's view is causing this law to be on the verge of being abolished. From the creation of the insanity defense, American society’s view on whether the insanity defense should be kept has been split. Before the insanity defense was developed there…