Kennedy Harkins's List: Insanity Plea

• psychiatric illness or mental handicap
• based on evaluations by forensic mental health professionals
• "not guilty by reason of insanity" (NGRI) or "guilty but insane/mentally ill"
• Frendak v. United States, the court ruled that the insanity defense cannot be imposed upon an unwilling defendant if an intelligent defendant voluntarily wishes to forego the defense.

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• cognitive insanity
• so impaired by a mental disease or defect at the time of the act that he or she did not know the nature or quality of the act
• he or she did not know that the act was wrong
• volitional insanity, or Irresistible Impulse
• defendant, although able to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the act, suffered from a mental disease or defect that made him or her incapable of controlling her or his actions
• common in crimes of vengeance
• Very few states allow the volitional insanity defense.
• Persons who are incompetent to stand trial are held in a mental institution until they are considered capable of participating in the proceedings.
• should not be confused with Incompetency

• The judge may issue this instruction if the defendant has produced sufficient evidence at trial to justify the theory. Sufficient evidence invariably includes Expert Testimony by psychologists and psychiatrists.
• 60 to 70 percent of insanity pleas are for crimes other than murder. They range from assault to shoplifting.

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• Andrea Yates, 37, was found NGBRI in Texas, after postpartum psychosis caused her to drown her five children in a bathtub. Twenty six- year-old Colorado resident John Hinckley was found NGBRI in Washington after he shot Ronald Reagan in a schizophrenia-fueled attempt to secure a date with Jodie Foster.
• so even when sanity is restored—as it allegedly has been in the case of both Mr. Hinckley and Ms. Yates—NGBRI acquitees are routinely kept committed. Ms. Yates has been in a locked hospital eight years and Mr. Hinckley, 29 years.
• so even when sanity is restored—as it allegedly has been in the case of both Mr. Hinckley and Ms. Yates—NGBRI acquitees are routinely kept committed. Ms. Yates has been in a locked hospital eight years and Mr. Hinckley, 29 years.
• To protect against the possibility of NGBRI acquitees going free, some states either eliminated not guilty by reason of insanity or replaced it with "guilty because of mental illness." Individuals found guilty because of mental illness go to a hospital until their sanity is restored and then to jail to finish out their sentence.
• More than 230,000 people with severe mental illness are currently incarcerated in America.

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