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The Insanity Defense Reform Act largely upheld the decision in M'Naghten and reversed the subsequent decision in Brawner, concluding that, for a person to be acquitted on grounds of insanity, his or her mental disorder must have removed the individual's ability to distinguish between right and wrong during the commission of the crime. In response to the acquittal of John Hinckley, charged with attempting to assassinate President Reagan in the early 1980's but acquitted on grounds of insanity, US Congress passed the Insanity Defence Act of 1984, making it harder for defendants to escape criminal responsibility by reasons of insanity.
#THE INSTANITY DEFENSE TRIAL#
Those standing trial before a judge and jury (jury trials).Those standing trial before a judge only (bench trials)Īnd defendants least likely to be successfully acquitted on insanity defenses are:.The largest study, which examined insanity please in 35 US states (Cirincione and Jacobs 1999), found that on average only slightly over 30 defendants are acquitted of crimes by reason of insanity each year in the United States.ĭefendants most likely to be successfully acquitted on insanity defenses: One multiple-statewide study found a 20% - 25% success rate for insanity pleas (Callahan et al 1991), while another (conducted in Colorado) found a 44% success rate, and another (conducted in Wyoming) found a 2% success rate. What is more certain is that insanity defence claims are very rarely successful. How often the insanity defence is actually used remains difficult to determine, but researchers have estimated that insanity pleas are probably used in only 1% of all US felony cases. Mental disorder does not equate with being not guilty of one's crimes. This does not necessarily mean that all mentally-disordered persons are not criminally responsible, nor does it mean that criminal responsibility requires the individual to be perfectly healthy. University of Rhode Island Change Assessment(URICA)ĭefendants found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) are those whom a judge and/or jury has found to be so mentally-disordered during the commission of a crime that the individual should not be held criminally responsible for that crime.Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT).Ohio Risk Assessment System - Pretrial (ORAS-PAT).Correctional Mental Health Screening for Men.California Psychological Inventory (Socialization).Brief Jail Mental Health Screen (BJMHS).Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI).Borderline Personality Disorder Self-Report.
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