Affirmative defense

successful. This verdict can often be mistaken for the defence of diminished responsibility / capacity despite there being many major differences between the two. Although both are there to be used by mentally ill defendants, reason of insanity is a full defense to a crime and diminished responsibility / capacity is not. Pleading not guilty by reason of insanity is essentially equivalent to pleading not guilty, diminished responsibility / capacity is however just the defendant pleading to a…

know wrong from right in accordance with the law. However, some individuals do not have the ability to realize the wrongfulness of their actions. For example, should someone with a mental disability be punished for committing a crime? “The insanity defense refers to that branch of the concept of insanity which defines the extent to which men accused of crime may be relieved of criminal responsibilities by virtue of mental disease.” (Goldstein 9) For an act to be considered an act of insanity, a…

of their “mental illness”. The Insanity Defense should…

views about what needs to be done to protect the United States from nuclear warfare as well as characteristics of ignorance, unpreparedness, and fear from Americans that lead to the preparedness for nuclear attack. Mixed views about types of civil defense that needed to take place during this time were very controversial. Nuclear warfare sparked…

Often times, I think the insanity defense is used consciously to escape penalties of the law. Or perhaps it can be referred to as the “defense of last resort,” when there is no question that the accused committed the act and the defense can think of nothing else to exonerate his/her client. Consider the case of Andrea Yates. In my opinion, Yates knew the difference between right and…

limiting to just using pepper spray could be doing more harm than good. Ball also quoted a student saying that if you don’t find the right pepper spray that it could just blow up in your face, blinding you more than the attacker(1). So with the only defense having between you and an attacker is a small, faulty can of mace is…

Either way, no argument is really formed. No reasons are given. For sake of challenging an actual argument, she is disregarding this issue. With this premise out of the way, she addresses the basic argument the pro-choice campaign believes. “Every person has a right to life. So the fetus has a right to life. No doubt the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to her body; everyone would grant that. But surely a person’s right to life is stronger and more stringent than the…

Hinckley’s “reason” for trying to assassinate the than president Ronald Regan was that he was trying to get the attention of actress Jodie Foster. Lead psychiatric expert for the defense a Dr. William Carpenter concluded that “the defendant suffered from schizophrenia. He saw Hinckley has having four major symptoms of mental illness: an incapacity to have an ordinary emotional arousal," "autistic retreat from reality," depression…

rights. The courts held in favor of Arizona stating that insanity standards are open to state choice (2004). Clark vs. Arizona relevance - It is important that the evaluating mental health professional to be aware of state standards for the insanity defense. The statues vary by state. The role of the mental health professional is to prove the mental illness of the defendant at the time of the criminal act to assist in the Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity plea.…

Insanity Defense When a crime is committed the person responsible must enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, but what does it mean to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity? Entering into a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity is claiming that you cannot be held responsible for the crime committed due to the fact that you were mentally unstable when it occurred. In other words, saying that you literally went insane (FindLaw). In cases such as these it is very possible to still be…