How does the insanity defense work?
Proving that you are not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity is extremely difficult. Only about one percent of criminal defendants even raise the defense, and only a quarter of those are successful. While the legal definitions of insanity vary from state to state, the essential element of insanity defenses is that the defendants lacked the required criminal intent to make them legally responsible for their actions. The most widely used legal definition of insanity is known as the MNaghten rule, named after a famous English murder case from the 1800s. In a nutshell, the MNaghten rule requires a defendant to prove either that he did not know what he was doing, or if he did, that he didnt know what he was doing was wrong. Boiled down even further, a defendant is insane under MNaghten if he didnt know right from wrong. Another standard courts will use is called the irresistible impulse test. Under this standard, defendants must prove that they knew their acts were wrong, but couldnt co
