How many people are acquitted by reason of insanity?
Carmen Cirincione and Charles Jacobs (1999) contacted officials in all 50 states and asked for the number of insanity acquittals statewide between the years 1970 and 1995. They received data from 36 states. Few states could provide information for the entire 25-year period, but the following results were obtained: • The median number of insanity acquittals per state per year was 17.7. • California and Florida had the highest annual averages (134 and 111, respectively); New Mexico (0.0) and South Dakota (0.1) had the lowest. • Most of the acquittals were for felonies rather than misdemeanors. Source: Lawrence S. Wrightsman, Edie Greene, Michael T. Nietzel, and William H. Fortune, “Science of the Insanity Defense: How Successful Is It?” in Psychology and the Legal System, 5th ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2002).
