Criminal Trials: What Is The Insanity Defense?
Insanity Defense
In criminal trials, the insanity defense is the claim that the defendant is not responsible for his or her actions due to mental health problems. Any mental illness could serve the basis for an insanity defense, excluding conditions that have antisocial behaviors as their primary characteristic and appear to have no physiological basis. Overall I believe that if someone has a real mental illness and it made him or her commit their crime, they should not go to prison. I feel that the insanity defense should be used as a viable defense.
The reason the insanity plea should be a viable defense is that mentally insane people should not be punished for crimes they didn’t know they were committing. People cannot help being mentally
ill. These people either develop it over time or are born with the illness. These mental illnesses are genuine, too. Some mental illnesses make the person unaware they are doing something illegal or wrong. It is unmoral to prosecute an individual if they lack the characteristics that relate to the ability to engage in rational thinking. If the ill person is not taking the proper medicine, everything is haywire in their brain. Their egos may be totally irrational or they hear voices that tell them to do things. Their brains are short-circuited. They are not in the right state of mind when they commit their crimes. They cannot think clearly at all. These people that commit the crime should not go to prison where their illness would probably get worse. Prisons are not there to treat people. They should instead be going to metal hospitals where they can get the help that they need. This punishment of going to a mental hospital is not more lenient than the alternative. People who are sentenced to go to the hospitals often are left in there far longer than if they went to prison. They may even spend their whole life in these institutions.
To determine if a person is mentally insane in a court case, two or more professional experts should give their opinion on the person.
In criminal trials, the insanity defense is the claim that the defendant is not responsible for his or her actions due to mental health problems. Any mental illness could serve the basis for an insanity defense, excluding conditions that have antisocial behaviors as their primary characteristic and appear to have no physiological basis. Overall I believe that if someone has a real mental illness and it made him or her commit their crime, they should not go to prison. I feel that the insanity defense should be used as a viable defense.
The reason the insanity plea should be a viable defense is that mentally insane people should not be punished for crimes they didn’t know they were committing. People cannot help being mentally
ill. These people either develop it over time or are born with the illness. These mental illnesses are genuine, too. Some mental illnesses make the person unaware they are doing something illegal or wrong. It is unmoral to prosecute an individual if they lack the characteristics that relate to the ability to engage in rational thinking. If the ill person is not taking the proper medicine, everything is haywire in their brain. Their egos may be totally irrational or they hear voices that tell them to do things. Their brains are short-circuited. They are not in the right state of mind when they commit their crimes. They cannot think clearly at all. These people that commit the crime should not go to prison where their illness would probably get worse. Prisons are not there to treat people. They should instead be going to metal hospitals where they can get the help that they need. This punishment of going to a mental hospital is not more lenient than the alternative. People who are sentenced to go to the hospitals often are left in there far longer than if they went to prison. They may even spend their whole life in these institutions.
To determine if a person is mentally insane in a court case, two or more professional experts should give their opinion on the person.