Essays on Insanity

Q. 1: The Defendant’s Competence to Stand Trial

No, the defense team feels that the defendant is not competent to stand trial. This is because Mr. Stu Dents must have been suffering from delusions at the time of the commission of the alleged crime. From the evidence obtained in the Journal entries containing references to aliens, God, and the end of the world, it is argued on the defendant’s behalf that he was suffering from some mental defect which made him have a deluded feeling that killing was a way of “fulfilling his destiny.” Moreover, the defendant’s combative, irrational, and agitated behavior at the time ...

The “Son of Sam” Case

The Nature and Type of Defenses Used The main type of defense that was used in this case is the insanity defense. The insanity defense is a common-law excusatory defense under which a defendant in a criminal case asks the court to excuse them from criminal responsibility for their conduct. According to Math, Kumar, and Moirangthem (2015), the insanity defense rides on the assumption that at the material time, the accused person was ailing from a mental illness making them incapable of differentiating right from wrong behavior or appreciating the nature of the crime. The test for establishing the ...

Insanity Defense Paper

Insanity Defense Paper

A person is not responsible for criminal act if such behavior was a result of mental disease or defect and if the defendant did not have any significant opportunity to assess the unlawfulness of his conduct or to subordinate his behavior requirements of the law. Stu Dents cannot be not subject to criminal liability due to the fact that at the time of committing a socially dangerous act, he was insane, that is, could not be aware of his actions or control them due to chronic mental illness, disturbances of mental activity. During the arrest Stu ...

Introduction

One of the most common strategies of criminal defense attorneys when representing a defendant who has an unusual condition such as a mental abnormality, is to argue either that regardless of their actions, they are nevertheless not responsible for the crime or that they never had the capacity to commit a crime. The reason that criminal defense attorneys can make these arguments is that criminal law recognizes a number of unique situations where otherwise criminal conduct should not be subjected to a determination of guilt and the offender should be exempted from the crime (LaFave, 2000). These arguments, which ...

Psychological testing was developed to examine the cognitive and behavioral aspects of a patient. A variety of tests have been created to evaluate the individual to determine either the diagnosis of the individual or simply to attain an assessment or evaluation of the individual. Each test discussed below can provide advantages to the forensic setting. The validity and reliability of these tests have been extensively evaluated and are discussed. 1. Mental Status Exam The Mental Status Exam (“MSE”) is used to evaluate a patient’s mental functions and behaviors. The MSE was created as a tool for clinical psychologists ...

There are various guidelines in the United States of America that decide how tests may be used in legal cases. The three main systems are statutory, case law, and the one that corresponds to the American Psychological Association. Even though these three have the same principles and main points, they differ on their approach and the stipulations that they set for practitioners. The more legal aspects of these procedures respond to either statute or case law. Mental health standards vary from state to state, including the competency to be applicable for capital punishment. There are federal statutes that must ...

Introduction

The main legal issue raised in the present scenario is whether Andrea was suffering from mental insanity when she committed the aforementioned crimes and therefore whether she can successfully rely on the defense of insanity, say, on appeal. Further, this problem raises the issue of if Andrea’s ex-husband, Rusty, bears any criminal responsibility in the crime. As a general defense to criminal liability for all offenses, the defense of insanity allows the jury to return a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict. Under this defense, the accused person may claim that at the time they committed the ...

Theodore Bundy, known as Ted, was born in 1946 and was a source of shame to his mother, who was not married when she gave birth. This was considered a scandalous affair by her parents, who were deeply religious. In order to keep their family intact Ted Bundy was adopted by his grandparents and raised to believe that his mother was his sister. Later on he moved to Tacoma with his “sister”, Eleanor Colwell, to Tacoma, Washington. There she met and eventually married Johnnie Bundy. Despite being raised in a stable, working-class home, Ted Bundy still started exhibiting several ...

Introduction

The criminal justice system in the United States is complex and has a trove of advantages for the defendant in comparison to several other nations. The rights include the right to an attorney and the right to remain silent during a police interrogation. Apart from these rights, the process to find someone guilty and sentence that person is a tedious process. Unlike justice systems which rely on circumstantial evidence, the American Justice system insists on the presence of physical evidence to corroborate. In addition, a lengthy process ensures checkpoints in different areas to prevent convicting innocent people of crimes ...

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Overview

Based on a 2005 survey that was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, 2.6 percent of the adult population has a bipolar disorder (National Institutes of Health, n.d.). Among these people, 82.9 percent have severe cases of the said condition. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive disorder, is a serious condition which affects patients’ day to day lives. The National Institutes of Health (n.d.) describes this condition as a “dramatic shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels.” In the popular culture, this disorder have been presented in many American films. For instance, in the year 2012, ...

In this July 2013 trial, George Zimmerman stood accused of the second-degree murder of teenager Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman had shot Martin in February 2012 after a confrontation between the two in Sanford, Florida. From the beginning, Zimmerman defense team did not deny that he had shot Martin but rather that he shot Martin in self-defense (Linder, 2014). Claiming self-defense is one of the fundamental principles of exculpation in criminal law. The theory underlying exculpation holds that in some situations although a person has otherwise acted criminally, their actions are justified and therefore should not be subject to punishment. In ...

The film, ‘Apocalypse Now' is a 1979 American movie, which bases its settings In the Vietnam War. The film draws its plot and characters from the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, an explorer of the Congo, who puts down his experiences in the heart of Africa. The film and the novel both emphasize on the native savages depicting the latter as objects rather than human beings whose character deserve an exploration just like other characters. This essay reviews the ‘Apocalypse Now' film based on the differences and similarities between the film and the novel on which it ...

 Edgar Allen Poe, in this story, shows that personality disorders if not attended to, can lead to insanity. In an attempt to clearly show this, he uses an elaborate plot, descriptive language and brings out his main character in a puzzling manner. “The Tell-Tale Heart’’ could classify as a morality tale that criticizes the rationales and gothic.  Poe's mind is known to be “warped” and this story just confirms that. He features dark themes, violence, and a psychologically unstable character, who kills someone because he can’t stand their eyes. Poe begins his story with a scene where the ...

Insanity defense, as it is known in many jurisdictions refers to the assertion by a person accused of criminal prosecution that at the time of committing the criminal act(s) they were not in the right state of mind as to appreciate the wrongfulness of their acts. Insanity has been invoked in many jurisdictions to reverse legal decisions or acquit people accused of crimes and it comes forth as the perfect defense. Whenever it is applied, it permits a person who is factually guilty to escape punishment and incarceration. Canadian laws have numerous circumstances exempt individuals from criminal responsibility ...

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, is a fictional depiction of her own experience. Once, she was forced to undergo a course of treatment for what the doctor felt was a severe nervous breakdown. The psychiatrists in those days, in the nineteenth century, were in the habit of looking at a woman as a domestic animal and diagnose her mental disorders as a result of her distorted domestic life. Gilman fictionalizes her experience in order to highlight the state of the subordinated life of a woman in her days, particularly the suppressed state of a married woman. ...

Function of Ophelia in the Plot of the Story

Ophelia is portrayed as an innocent girl who is faced with grief when her father dies as she is left talking in riddles and singing sorrowful songs. The grief Ophelia undergoes leads to her drowning in the end with suggestions that she might have killed herself. However, there is a disagreement with the sentiments of the clerics during the funeral event since Laertes, her brother believes that the innocent soul of Ophelia will be in heaven. The fact that her brother believes that she shall be in heaven further paints the picture of an innocent Ophelia. The Queen wishes ...

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an outstanding American writer and a huge supporter of women’s rights that reflected in her literary works. One of her most famous one is the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” that is written in the form of a diary of a young lady, who was diagnosed with a mental disease and spent a time living in a room with yellow wallpaper that led to her demise. The story can be viewed as semiautobiographical, as Gilman wrote it after she had a postpartum psychosis. In her story she uses figurative language to reveal the theme ...

In the Victorian period The Woman Question was a widely discussed topic, and engaged many Victorians, both male and female. The ideal woman of that age was associated with tenderness, understanding, innocence, domestic affection and submissiveness. The woman had to maintain the status and integrity of her husband, being always the devoted and pleasing angel in the house. Coventry Patmore supported the idea that women should be extremely pure and selfless in his popular, best-selling long poem “The Angel in the House” (1854). A woman that failed at such responsibilities was labelled either mad or hysterical. During the Victorian ...

Some actions, despite their initial good intentions, are hampered by its oftentimes poor executions. Although Victor Frankenstein expressed that his initial reason to cheat the cycle of life and death is to create a better world, his past and state of mind is actually mired with selfish intentions. Curiosity is something inherent in every human being, but there is a line that must never be crossed even by the most insatiable thirst for knowledge. There is a fine line that separates science and knowledge from madness and insanity, regardless of the age and reason. Victor’s desire for knowledge ...

Introduction

Before the establishment of the M’Naghten rule, it was not clear whether or not an insane individual could be judged as being guilty if the individual was accused of any criminal offence. The M'Naghten Rule refers to a rule that was established in 1843 in a case that involved Daniel M’Naghten and the then England Prime minister Sir Robert Peel, (Goldstein, 1980). The rule can be said to be test for criminal insanity. It is important to note that as per this rule on the basis of insanity reasons, the defendant cannot be judged as being guilty more ...

Introduction

To begin with, code of ethics for nurses can be contented as being one of the universally and globally agreed set of laws and rules that are internationally applicable to all nurses all over the world. Basically, nurses can be debated as having four significant and essential responsibilities and duties in the medical field: First, they are responsible to ensure that patients, families and communities remain in healthy conditions all the time irrespective of color, age, locality, gender, political background, physical disability, nationality, sex and tribe. In addition, nurses are expected to prevent, avert and obviate illness, sickness, disease ...