Pleading insane during a trial can be highly controversial. But what does it mean to be
criminally insane? Could someone who is criminally insane get away with anything they want?
At the most basic level someone is considered criminally insane if they have a mental illness
that makes it impossible for them to understand their actions when committing a crime. Another
component of this is if the person’s illness prevents them from knowing that their actions
are wrong. This breaks the criminally insane plea down into two categories.
The first is that the person’s mental illness literally causes them to not know what they’re
doing. This could be due to a disease such as schizophrenia.
The other category is people who knew what they were doing when they committed the crime,
but did not see it as morally wrong. This could happen with
mental diseases that cause someone to have a complete lack of empathy for others.
Either way, to be considered criminally insane, the defendant must plea guilty
to committing the crime, but prove they were not culpable because of their mental illness.
The evidence needed to prove someone is criminally insane varies by state. But in all cases,
the defense must prove that they were either unaware of what they were doing,
or that they could not see it as morally wrong because of their mental state.
It is also interesting to note that the definition of being legally insane is not
determined by a psychologist, but by the court. Psychologists and medical professions do play a
role in the analysis, but the designation of being criminally insane is given by the court itself.
Someone can even be considered psychotic, yet not meet the legal
criteria for being criminally insane. We will definitely see a case of this later.
So when is someone considered criminally insane?
It all depends on the state they are being tried in. Some of the criteria may shock you.
In most states the courts adhere to what is called the M’Naghten Test. This test is used to
assess the thought process and perceptions of the person at the time they committed the murder. So,
when using the M’Naghten Test the defendant does not need to be currently insane,
they only needed to be cognitively impaired during the time of the crime.
This means that someone could seem completely normal in the courtroom,
but still be declared criminally insane if their mental illness impaired their reasoning,
or drove their actions, while committing the crime. In some states such as Arizona
the courts revised the test to remove certain phrases. This was done to ensure
that someone who knew what they were doing, but did not believe it to be morally wrong
because of their mental illness, could also be considered criminally insane.
Therefore, someone could be in complete control of their actions and know exactly
what they were doing when they committed the crime, but if their morality was
impaired by their mental illness, they could be considered criminally insane.
This would lead to an acquittal of the charges if the M’Naghten Test was being employed.
Another test used by about 20 states in the U.S. is the The American Law Institute Model,
or Brawner Rule. This test determines whether when the person committed the crime they lacked
the capacity to appreciate the criminality of their actions. Of course this also must
be connected to some sort of mental disease or illness. The caveat is that this rule excludes
mental illnesses that cause the defendant to commit the same crime over and over during the
course of their life. Therefore, if someone is tried in a state using the Brawner Rule,
and their mental illness causes them to repeatedly commit the same crime, they cannot plead insanity.
The final test is only used by one state and that’s the Live Free or Die state
of New Hampshire. The test they use is called the Durham Test. This test only requires the
defense to prove that the criminal act was a product of a mental disease or illness,
which allows the definition of criminal insanity to be much
broader. The Durham Test requires the defense to prove a lot less than in other states.
You may not be surprised that this makes pleading criminal insanity slightly
easier in New Hampshire. Also, some defense attorneys in the state interpret the Durham Test
to include any mental illness, which makes what is considered criminally insane much more vague.
Regardless of which state the defendant is in, the burden of proof is on the defendant,
not the prosecution when seeking a plea of criminal insanity. The defendant must
prove that they had a mental illness, which caused them to be unaware they
were committing a crime at the time. This is the exact opposite of a normal court
case where the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty.
At this point you may be wondering who has succeeded in pleading criminal insanity,
and what their crimes were. In today’s court system it is incredibly hard to
win an insanity plea. In fact, it has one of the lowest success rates out
of all criminal defenses. But that wasn’t always the case.
The first known assassination attempt on a United States president was by Richard Lawrence
who tried to kill Andrew Jackson in 1835. He fired two pistols at the back of the president,
but they both misfired. Lawrence was tackled to the ground and arrested.
In his trial the jury learned that Lawrence was a house painter, and may have been subjected to
harmful chemicals during his work that made him mentally unstable. They found him criminally
insane and he was sent to several different mental institutions before he passed away 1861.
On October 14, 1912 John Schrank shot President Theodore Roosevelt while he
was campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The bullet struck Roosevelt in the chest,
but he miraculously survived. When he was questioned by police,
Schrank declared that President William McKinley had come to him in a dream and told him that
he had been assassinated by Roosevelt. So, Schrank was on a mission of revenge.
Schrank also said: "I looked upon his plan to start a third party as a danger to the country; my
knowledge of history, gained through much reading, convinced me that Colonel Roosevelt was engaged
in a dangerous undertaking. I was convinced that if he was defeated at the Fall election he would
again cry ‘Thief’ and that his action would plunge the country into a bloody civil war.”
Schrank truly believed that the only thing he could do to save the country
was to assassinate Roosevelt. The judge determined he was criminally insane,
and Schrank spent the rest of his life in an asylum.
You may be thinking that there is no way a third person attempting to assassinate a president would
be declared criminally insane… but you’d be wrong. It seems like if you attempt to
assassinate a president and fail, the way to go is pleading insanity as a defense.
In 1981 John Hinckley Jr. tried to kill President Ronald Reagan. His
insanity plea was bolstered by the fact that shortly before his assassination attempt,
Hinckley wrote a letter that explained he was going to shoot the president to
impress actress Jodie Foster. He clearly had a deeply unhealthy obsession with the actress.
He was found criminally insane during his trial. However, this led to public outrage
over the verdict and led to the Insanity Defense Reform Law of 1984. This law greatly
modified the process for pleading insane and made it much more rigorous. Hinckley
was sent to an asylum, but was allowed to make periodic visits to his mother.
With the reforms put in place after Hinckley’s case it became much more difficult for someone
to win an insanity plea. For example, in 1991 Jeffrey Dahmer was convicted of murdering,
mutilating, and cannibalizing 15 young men. At his trial he admitted to the
killings and put in for an insanity plea. The court rejected his plea,
and his case was sent to trial where he was convicted as a legally sane individual.
He was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences in prison with no chance of parole.
The treatment of Dahmer’s case prompted many to believe the end of the insanity defense had
finally come. The result of the case may have been in direct response to the acquittal of
Hinckley during his trial. If the defense could not prove that Jeffrey Dahmer was legally insane,
it seemed that no one would ever be able to plea insanity and win ever again.
However, this was not the case. In 1994 Lorena Bobbitt was declared criminally insane during
her trial for cutting off her husband’s penis and throwing it out the car window while driving
down a Virginia highway. Bobbitt said the reason she did this was because of years of emotional,
physical, and sexual abuse by her husband. After being found criminally insane she was
sent to a mental hospital for five months before the judge ordered her released.
We know that in order to be considered criminally insane the defense must prove
that their mental illness made them unable to comprehend what they were doing during
the time of the crime. From the stories of people who were found criminally insane,
most were sent to mental hospitals. But is this always the case?
The law says that if someone is found criminally insane they should immediately be committed to a
suitable facility. That is unless the court finds that releasing the person back into
society would pose no substantial risk of bodily harm to themselves or others. They
must also pose no risk of damaging another’s property as a result of their mental illness.
If this is the case, the person will be set free.
If someone is found criminally insane and they do pose a risk to others,
they are handed over to the Attorney General who must find them a suitable institution to
reside in. After the Attorney General does their job, the person is surrendered to the
State who is in charge of custody, care, and treatment of the individual. Once the
State deems that the person can safely be released back into society they will be.
This does not always happen, and some people who are found criminally insane will spend the rest
of their lives in a mental health institution. Winning a plea of insanity is incredibly difficult
because of the strict rules and laws around what constitutes being legally insane. The defendant
must prove without a doubt that during the time they committed their crime they had a mental
illness that impaired their judgment, or made them unaware that they were doing anything wrong.
Now watch “Journalist Goes Undercover At Insane Asylum
Becomes Prisoner.” Or check out “Average Day in an Insane Asylum.”