Research Update

I got a new book about the Insanity Plea, it talks about pros and cons, what is possible to do about it, what has been done, the insanity plea today and the history. There is a lot of information in this book that will be vital in my paper. I have not started my outline yet but i have a pretty good idea of how i am going to set up my paper.

Notes/Quotes

1. "Research in behavioral genetics has been extremely contentious. There are several scientific obstacles to correlating genotype (an individuals genetic endowment) and behavior. One problem is in defining a specific endpoint that characterizes a condition, be it schizophrenia or intelligence. Another problem is in identifying and excluding other possible causes of the condition, thereby permitting a determination of the significance of a supposed correlation. Much current research on genes and behavior also engenders very strong feelings because of the potential social and political consequences of accepting these supposed truths. Thus, more than any other aspect of genetics, discoveries in behavioral genetics should not be viewed as irrefutable until there has been substantial scientific corroboration." - Judicature

-There should be more scientific evidence of no premeditation and a clear physiciatric problem.

2. "The law has established a unitary standard for determining an individual's legal duty. In both the civil and criminal law, the lawfulness of an individual's conduct is determined by reference to the standard of behavior of a reasonable person. The hypothetical reasonable person is not the average person or the average juror, but the personification of a community ideal of reasonable behavior. This is an objective and largely unitary standard.

The criminal law also recognizes a version of the reasonable person standard. Criminal negligence is defined by reference to a reasonable person. In cases where a murder has been committed in a moment of passion, a reasonable person standard is used to determine whether the circumstances would cause such a reaction. If so, then the charge of murder is reduced to voluntary manslaughter.

The main rationales for the reasonable person standard are:
the required conduct of the individual and the outcomes of cases are more predictable,
having a unitary, objective standard allows individuals to have reasonable expectations of the behavior of others,
it is easy for juries to apply,
it can adapt and change over time,
it does not need detailed codification." - Judicature

- Standards could be more strict. Even if you comit a crime in a moment of passion, does not exclude your act against the law. It is understandable that this act may or may have not been premeditated, however, does that give the right for someone to commit a violent crime, such as murder, against another person if it was in a heated moment?

3. "Judges and juries have little, if any, expertise in evaluating scientific claims. If the adversary system encourages—indeed demands—that lawyers zealously advocate unproven scientific theories on behalf of their clients, the next important question is how will judges and juries view this evidence? By all indications, both judges and juries are ill-prepared to evaluate the validity of novel scientific assertions, and juries are likely to give too much credence to such arguments." -Judicature

-Juries would not know the difference of a man who premeditated a crime and is now faking to be phsychologically unstable and a man who was actually schitzophrenic and needed mental attention and would not have commited this crime had it not been for his mental state; and sadly, neither would a judge. A good act put on my a lawyer and his client would have the jury sobbing over this very sad story of a mentally ill man, even if he was not mentally ill.

4. "Judges must determine "whether the reasoning or methodology underlying the testimony is scientifically valid." This is composed of four factors: (1) whether the theory or techniques can be or have been tested; (2) the extent to which there has been peer review and publication of the theory or techniques; (3) the known or potential error rate and the existence and maintenance of standards controlling the technique's operation; and (4) the general acceptance of the methodology or technique in the scientific community." - Judicature

5. "The shooting was seen by millions on television, and Hinckley was immediately apprehended. He was charged with 13 crimes. His trial, which began about 13 months later, lasted 7 weeks and resulted in an acquittal by reason of insanity." - Trial of John W Hinckley, Jr - A Case Study in the Insanity Defense http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/abstractdb/AbstractDBDetails.aspx?id=101855

- The crime was seen by millions of people, he had brought a gun with him, and yet he was found guilty by reason of insanity? That is absolutely rediculous in the fact that he should have been put in jail because the crime was clearly premeditated.

6. Dan White was found guilty on two acounts of manslaughter. The prosecutor's defense included that White planned the two murders. Firstly, by bringing a gun; secondly by entering a different enterance so that he could escape the metal detectors; and thirdly, by committing the crimes in cold blood and precisely placing is shots in the heads of the victims, knowing that it would lead to the demise of the mayor and Harvey Milk.

"No matter what White claimed about the incident, Norman pointed out, 'actions speak louder than words.'" - Prosecutor Thomas Norman, You are the juror ; http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=45PhlVd9DNUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA8&dq=dave+white+twinkie+defense&ots=m5EDvu-4Kt&sig=sCbf0Kz4bBGFdMYAioMa_LVcBE8#PPA89,M1

The prosecutution had a perfect case. The crime was clearly premeditated, there was no way that the jury would be able to see it any other way. He went there with a gun, got around the metal detectors because he knew that would give him away; he then called the mayor in and shot him in the head four times, leading to his death. He then carefully reloaded his gun before he went to find Milk. He led Milk to the mayor's office and fired multiple bullets into his head, leading to his demise. There is no way that this act was not thought about and planned before committing.

7. The defense's case was that Dan White was an outstanding citizen. They had friends and others who knew White testify that he was a very calm and honest person. One man, White's softball teammate, said that he had seen White lose his temper only once. Defense attorney, Douglas Smidt, then brought up how White had been through a lot in the past few weeks preceding to this crime. He was in danger of losing his home because he could not make enough money with his fast food stand, the Hot Potato. The group of physiciatrists testified that White was suffering from mental and financial problems. He stayed up late stuffing himself with twinkies, doughnuts, potato chips, candy bars, and soda; and according to one phsyciatrist, this caused a chemical imbalance for White. the phsyciatrists conclusion was that Milk had a "deminished mental capacity" and had not been mentally stable when he committed the murders. The night before he committed the crimes, he stayed up all night eating twinkies and drinking soda becuase he found out that Mayor Moscone would not be reappointing him to his previous job that he had lost. On phsyciatrists claimed that White had brought his gun as a "security blanket." The defense then claimed that he climbed through a window to escape an "awkward situation" he would be put in by refusing the metal detector. He then shot the mayor because when he was in his office talking to him, he heard a "roaring" in his ears which the phsyciatrists called "an uncontrolled breakthrough of primitive rage". He shot the mayor because it would have offended his morality to punch an old man in the face. The reason he reloaded his gun was instinct, and when he went to talk to Milk about his rage, Milk smirked at him so White snapped and shot him. -You are the Juror

-Eating twinkies do not cause poeple to become insane. He wanted to escape an awkward situation? Then why did he bring a gun? If it was so unusual for him to be eating junk food, then why did he own a fast-food restaurant? He did not want to hurt his morality by punching an old man in the face, so instead he shoots an old man in the head repeatedly? The defense made hardly any sense however the jury never considered that this crime was premeditated.

8. The jury, all of whom were heterosexual, claimed that the thought of the man being gay had nothing to do with their decision. However regardless, any person who was gay, lesbian, or had a gay or lesbian friend, was excluded from the jury. After Dan White's case was spread throughout the community, the gay and lesbian community revolted in riots, burning of police vehicles, lighting fires, and throwing rocks and bottles. 120 people were injured. They claimed that the prosecution had failed to present the fact that White was known for being a bully and getting into fights. - You are the Juror

-The "twinkie" defense became a nation wide known defense of a person who eats too much junk food and drinks too much soda is not responsible for his actions

9. "The criminal law is one of many mechanisms for the social control of human behavior. It defines conduct, which undermines or destroys community values. It seeks to protect the life, liberty, dignity, and property of the community and its members by threatening to deprive those who contemplate such conduct, and by depriving those who engage in proscribed activity, of the very values the law is intended to protect." - Journal article; Why an "Insanity Defense" by Joseph Goldstein and Jay Katz. http://www.jstor.org/pss/20026796

-The law is to protect. Therefore, if someone commits a crime, they should be penalized. If they are very mentally ill and that is why they committed the crime, they should still be penalized but not to the extent of someone who clearly premeditated the crime. The insanity plea should not be abused.

10. "Traditionally, the requisite material elements of a crime have been a voluntary act, purposely causing a result which is deemed offensive. In so defining crimes, lawmakers seek to exclude from liability those whom the community would no wish to restrain. The state cannot hold a person criminally responsible for murder, for example, if there is no casual relationship between the shot fired and the death of the victim; or if the shot was fired without the intent to kill." - Why an "Insanity Defense"

-The idea that if the bullet does not have a relationshiup with the death of the victim, this does not lead to punishment is wrong. If someone shoots another person, they are dangerous. If someone intends to kill someone but does not succeed, they are still dangerous.

11. "Opinion surveys conducted well before Hinkley’s shooting of Reagan reveal that for some time the majority of Americans have held the view that the insanity plea is a loophole that allows too many guilty people to go free." - Criminology

-Hinkley's case was one of the major cases of abuse of the insanity plea. This proves that even before the case occured people believed that the insanity defense was abused.

12. "Researchers have shown that agreement with the statement that the insanity defense is a loophole is significantly associated with support for the death penalty." - Criminology

13. Escaping the death penalty in England was one of the first reasons for criminals to use the insanity defense and other excuses. -Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine; No excuses http://jrsm.rsmjournals.com/cgi/reprint/95/2/61

-This has come a very long way from escaping the death penalty to escaping jail time.

14.
"1. Every man is to be presumed to be sane and to possess a sufficient degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes, until the contrary be proved.
2. An insane person is punishable "if he knows" at the time of crime.
3. To establish a defense on insanity, the accused, by defect of reason or disease of mind, is not in a position to know the nature and consequences.
4. The insane person must be considered in the same situation as to responsibility as if the facts with respect to which the delusion exists were real.
It was the jury's role to decide whether the defendant was insane." -Daniel McNaughton (1813-1865) Indian Journal of Phsyciatry; http://www.indianjpsychiatry.org/article.asp?issn=0019-5545;year=2007;volume=49;issue=3;spage=223;epage=224;aulast=Asokan

- Guidlines determined after McNaughton case

15. "Overall, the insanity defense was raised in one percent of all felony cases. Further, only 26 percent of those raising the insanity defense were actually acquitted NGRI." -http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1786413

- This leads me to believe that the insanity defense is pretty limited. However, there still have been many cases which result in a sane person, who knew what they were doing at the time they did it, escaping jail time because they claim to be insane.

16. "psychological experts alone cannot solve ambiguities in the insanity defense" - http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=118916

-There needs to be more analysis before a judgement is made by a phsychological expert. There needs to be mroe time spent with the criminal to determine if he or she is insane or not, and there needs to be more testing done without phsychologists.

17. "There are many different interpretations of "insane" and many different notions of how to deal with insane individuals.
Some opponents of the insanity defense, including Thomas Szasz, Jeffrey Schaler and Richard Vatz, claim that "insanity" is a mythical construction designed to relieve lawbreakers from criminal responsibility (mens rea)." - controversey over the insanity defense, wikepedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity_defense#Controversy_over_the_insanity_defense

- Is this opinion going to do anything for constriction of the insanity defense or make it more accurate?

18. "Since extreme selfishness ("self-absorption") or broadly shared resentments (e.g. envy of the rich, hatred of another ethnic group) are somewhat infectious behaviors, some argue that other "mental illness" were defined into existence to protect those whose motives and behaviors were not so infectious, and whose offenses were thus unlikely to be repeated by others. The cost of this system of mercy, however, was to classify the phsychiatrist and patient in an ongoing unequal power relationship" - controversy over the insanity defense

- I can use this quote in a part of the essay where I am talking about abuse of power and the effect it has on the insanity defense in court.

19. "Those found to have been not guilty by reason of insanity are generally then required to undergo phsyiciatric treatment, except in the case of temporary insanity. Defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity are generally placed in a mental institution. Unlike defendants who are found guilty of a crime, they are not institutionalized for a fixed period, but rather held in the institution until they are determined not to be a threat. Authorities making this decision tend to be cautious and as a result, defendants can often be incarcerated for longer than they would have been in prison." Psychiatric treatments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity_defense#Psychiatric_treatments

-Insanity plea possibly as strict as it can be?

20. "The notion of temporary insanity argues that a defendant was insane, but is now sane. A defendant found to have been temporarily insane will often be released without any requirements of psychiatric treatment. This defense was first used by U.S. Congressman Daniel Sickles of New York in 1859 after he had killed his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key, but was most used during the 1940s and 1950s. Another case around that time was that of Charles J. Guiteau." - Temporary Insanity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity_defense#Psychiatric_treatments

-This seems a bit rediculous, they are let go without having any phsychiatric treatment and they dont have to have jail time?

Gilling, Daniel. Crime Prevention: Theory, Policy, and Politics. Routledge, 1997.

Is it possible for the government to prevent defendants from pretending to be insane in order to escape time in prison?

The other day I could not come up with a topic, however today in the computer lab I decided my topic would be about the insanity defense and ways to constrict it. There was a case dealing with the case of Harvey Milk and his assassination in 1978 by a man who claimed insanity. The case was that he normally ate healthy and was seen that day eating a twinky so he was in a mentally ill state that day. I am planning to use examples like these along with different methods of constricting this abused law to form my research paper.