Juneau has lived a mostly secluded life. Because of this, testing his mental capacity hasn’t been a priority for anyone to document. With that being said, it may be a hard fought defense to try to get the State to allow Mr. Juneau to use mental illness as his primary defense against these crimes. The truth about the insanity defense in America is that it is difficult to plead, seldom used and almost never successful. But in that small number of cases where it is successful, it is sometimes manipulated or abused in a way that often grabs headlines and captures the imagination of the public.…
Guilty but Mentally Ill…
In 2003, Andre Thomas viciously attacked and killed his ex-wife and her two children, and was sentenced to death row. His defense argued that he was not eligible for death row because of his mental state. The court ignored the argument and passed it off, saying that they were using his illness as an excuse to “get out of” maximum punishment. As demonstrated in this case, mental illness is not given the attention it deserves when determining a sentence. Cases such as these have aroused concern how fair the criminal court is towards the mentally ill.…
A person’s life has been heinously taken due to no fault of their own. Family and friends of the deceased have mourned, children have lost a parent, parents lost a child, and wives lost a husband. There is no way to ease their pain but, all they want is justice but, will they get it? When the murderer is finally caught the family is elated with joy and anticipate justice will prevail. But, there’s a catch, as the suspect’s defense attorney is claiming he was insane at the time the crime was committed and intends to plead just that.…
So the mental disorder or defect causes impairment in the person’s ability to appreciate or control their behavior, which then results in the criminal offense. It is important to recognize that the mere coexistence of a mental disorder and a criminal offense does not prove insanity; you have to be able to show the direct connection of how the disorder or defect influenced or caused the criminal…
Some people are up against the concept of insanity defense where they believe everyone who commits crime must take the criminal responsibility for their deviant behavior. On the other hand, there are group of people who believe the NCRMD is necessary in our criminal justice system, in order to sustain the equality for mentally ill person. Thus, the question of whether NCRMD is necessary in our criminal justice system is not a black or white question where there is a clear answer. However, the truth is that the NCRMD defense has created in our criminal justice system with a good purpose of providing equal rights for the mentally disordered people. This criminal defense does not exists and works as the sink hole for the accused to easily escape or avoid his or her criminal responsibility.…
The insanity defense states that a criminal defendant should not be found guilty due to the defendant inability to know what he or she was doing was against the law. What the insanity defense is stating is that a person who is insane lacks the intent required to perform a criminal act because the person either does not know that the act is wrong or cannot control his or her actions even when the person understands that the act is wrong. Insanity is hard to define, and the circumstances in which insanity can be used to excuse criminal responsibility are difficult to characterize. It is hard to really know if a person is actually insane or if they are using that excuse to get away with a crime.…
To the contrary, the legal definition shows that it is a very serious mental illness and cannot just be thrown around. This change in definition helps the reader to better understand the verdicts and helps them to see the legal system in a logical way. In this particular case, the lawyers that Dr. Lunde was testifying against were trying to use the insanity plea in order to protect their client when in reality it was just hurting them and making them appear desperate. Dr. Lunde’s words on the topic unveil some of the cheats used in the legal…
This only makes me further question the legal system on the morals and ethics behind punishment of the mentally ill, those who are insane beyond reasonable…
The law is aware of instances such as this and has created a plea of Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI). In receiving this verdict, the individual will be sent to a mental health facility to be treated for their mental illness instead of being sent to prison and being punished for the criminal act. The symptoms of…
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.…
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 lesser crime, the fact they are mentally ill is used as a mitigating factor. The law presumes that every person has free will, is responsible for their actions and should therefore be punished in accordance with the seriousness of their crime.…
The presence of this plea option has led to controversy in the law world; some think that the plea should be diminished while others notice its necessity. Nevertheless, there are people with mental illness in our society that commit crimes just as those without mental illness do. There should be a system that protects the rights of those with mental illness, but there is a lot of grey area with the current system in place because it is difficult to tell if the person was not in a sane state at the time the crime took place when the trial often occurs months later. Those who plea guilty by reason of insanity are required to go through an extensive psychological…
214). According to his attorney, Ralph did not deserve a jail sentence, but rather should have been put in a psychiatric institution to assist with his mental disease. Also, the prosecution relied solely on the fear of the jury based on the fear of letting a criminal back on the streets sooner or later, or the fact that most mental illness cases are most common in use as mitigating factors in doling out sentences, which was not factual in the case of Ralph. Lastly, the court of law did not protect the rights of an individual battling with a mental disorder. The jury and court should have determined Ralph’s case with a lot of sensitivity and give a probable not guilty by reason of insanity as outlined by Bartol & Bartol (2011, p.…
How do you feel about a defense that is made basically to allow a criminal justification over a crime they committed? Well thats the insanity defense for you. It has been around for over two-hundred years and since then it has had several reforms brought to it. It was brought around to help the mentally ill, allowing them to plead not guilty to a crime because they lacked the mental capacity to understand right from wrong or appreciate why what they did was wrong. Basically it states they aren’t criminally responsible for their actions; therefore they are sent to mental facilities to help treat their mental illness and not given prison or jail time.…