Essay On Volitional Prongs

Unlike the M’Naghten test, the ALI has a volitional prong as well. Volitional is saying you know it's wrong, you still commit it because you have to not by free choice. Volition tests have ways of seeing if they were insane by three distinguishing factors: was the crime premeditated, did they have the capacity to make choices, and did they think about getting caught. The volitional prong has different mental disorders closely tied including Bipolar 2 and paraphilias that could prohibit one’s free choice. In conclusion, the ALI is a lot less strict than the two other types of tests, but do incorporate both cognitive and volitional prongs.
Applied Analysis

The defendant does not meet the standard for legal insanity in Delaware, using the
American Legal Institute Test. Although, Howard the defendant, had a mental disorder Bipolar 2, it did not cause impairment at the time of the sexual assault. Mood disorders are relevant to volitional tests, but not to cognitive tests. Since Delaware is under ALI, it has to prove that both the cognitive and volitional prong were passed. Howard sexually assaulted, his ex-coworker out of his own control and sane mindset. Since Howard knew it was criminally wrong, would not pass the statement of “appreciate the wrongfulness”. Within the boundaries of the ALI test, Howard does not meet the legal terms for insanity because he failed the cognitive and volitional prongs. When differing sane from the insane within cognitive tests, there are different components: if they had a crazy reason for committing the act, and how do you tell if it's a crazy reason.
Howard states that he did know he was raping Stacy and he admitted he knew rape was wrong to his cellmate. He knew it was wrong because he drove her away from the scene to rape her and he admitted it to the cops when he got caught. In some respects, he was covering up the act of driving away from where he grabbed her. He was taking a protective measure by driving into an alley to then rape her instead of raping her at the gas station in front of the strangers. Stacy was not a random person, he knew what he was doing. He was fantasizing about Stacy for weeks before and he made his move. He sexualized Stacy by going to the strip clubs and comparing those girls to her. When the opportunity came about to sexually assault, he took his chance and he knew exactly what he was doing. Howard was not in a mental state of psychosis, he knew was going on, he just acted impulsively. There was no crazy reason why Howard attacked Stacy except that he wanted to and has been dreaming about her for weeks before. In conclusion, Howard did not pass the cognitive prong because you knew what he was doing and he made some precautionary
measures.
The other prong of the ALI test is the volitional tests. Howard once again did not pass this prong because he was in control of himself and the situation. Howard says he did not have a goal during the attack, but was unconsciously thinking about raping her from the weeks before. He has been sexualizing Stacy ever since she turned him down by supplementing the strippers to her. Howard had a goal, without planning it ahead of time. He has been constantly waiting for the day to see her again and he took the opportunity because he knew he would probably never again. He made the choice of grabbing her and moving her to the alley. He had volition when he grabbed her and then dragged her by the hair instead of just leaving her be. Each of these actions he made the decision to do so. Howard had free will to make decisions and his mood disorder did not prevent him from doing this. Howard had a regard for apprehension because he moved from the three witnesses before raping Stacy. Howard knew exactly what he was doing because when he was caught by the police, he admitted he did it. That means he knew it was legally wrong to rape her. He appreciated the wrongfulness and failed the prong at that very moment.
Howard does not meet the legal insanity because he did not pass the volitional and cognitive prong. Despite the fact that Howard is suffering from Bipolar 2, it was not caused the attack on Stacy. He was having a hypomanic episode, but he did not suffer from psychosis. A common element relating to Bipolar 2 is that he appreciated the wrongfulness of the act, but could not resist, but in this case Howard could resist he just chose not to do so. For that reason, Howard does not qualify for the insanity defense in Delaware.