Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin
We don't call it "temporary insanity." That's a lay term which looks a lot like a legal defense, but it doesn't exist. A plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect goes right to the mens rea aspect of the crime (a crime consists of two things, an act (actus reus) and a 'bad' mental state of either intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or negligently doing the bad thing (mens rea).
Most U.S. jurisdictions have rules which go something like this (cut/pasted from wikipedia):
According to that same article, the defense is very rare -- used only in less than 1% of the murder cases and successful only about 26% of the time.
Also, your 'reward,' should this defense work is to be locked in psyciatric prison facility until you are rehabilitated or until you are dead. My guess is that more often than not, it is the later that comes true more often than the former.
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Thanks...again most of my knowledge (both in law school and at work) has to do with civil defense, so you could fit my knowledge of criminal law on the head of a pin. The low use of the defense makes sense though, based on what I've heard in conversations with criminal defense attorneys.
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