Prompt #7- Contemplating Controversy

By: Katie Nagy

     In courtrooms, defense lawyers can claim that their clients cannot be found guilty of a crime due to insanity. The reasoning behind the insanity defense is if the accused was not in their right mind when they committed a crime, then they cannot be held responsible. A mental disease is not the reason for someone being acquitted of a crime, the mental disease had to of caused the crime. The rule for the insanity defense states, “A defendant may be excused from criminal responsibility if at the time of the commission of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from a disease of mind, as not to know the nature and the quality of the act he was doing.."("Insanity Defense" para. 1). 

      Forty-eight out of the fifty states in America have some version of an insanity defense, but the insanity defense is not used often. It is rare for someone to be found not guilty of a crime because of an insanity defense, and if found guilty of a crime, a person who pled insanity could be sentenced harsher than someone who did not try to use the insanity defense ("Insanity Defense" para. 4).

                                                       

      People that support the insanity defense claim that it protects citizens from harsh and unfair punishment. if they cannot be held responsible for their actions. In America, there are laws against using the death penalty on people with intellectual disabilities, so people believe that the insanity defense will keep mentally disabled people from being wrongly executed. A plea of mental insanity is also viewed as a positive in some people’s eyes because instead of sending a mentally disabled person to a prison where they would most likely not be able to adjust, they would be sent to a psychiatric hospital to receive the help they need ("7 major pros and cons" para. 5). 

      People that disagree with the insanity plea often worry that the defense will be misused. People in America believe in fair punishment for a crime, so it is a common worry among people that criminals will walk away freely after committing a crime due to an insanity defense, even if the criminal is not mentally disabled. Another common argument against the insanity plea is that it is hard to prove. The insanity plea states that the person committing a crime was not aware of their terrible actions and had no control over it, but there is no way to know if a person was aware of their actions during a crime, or if they were committing a crime with their own free will ("7 major pros and cons" para. 7).

      Lawyers’ main focus is to get their client acquitted of a crime, but what do you think? Should the insanity defense be allowed in courtrooms in America?

"Insanity Defense - Is There A Need For The Insanity Defense?" - Person, Criminal, Defendant, and     
       Moral. Net Industries, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015.

Justice is Blind. Digital image. Jrfibonacci. Wordpress, 2 May 2014. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.

What's Insanity Defense? Perf. Laurence Miller. Youtube. N.p., 1 Apr. 2012. Web. 06 Oct. 2015.

"7 Major Pros and Cons of an Insanity Defense | NLCATP.org." NLCATPorg. N.p., 7 July 2015. Web. 06  
       Oct. 2015.