Introduction:
The insanity defense has been used for many years and believed to began around the 1720’s where the first formal defense was used in a court in 1724. Judge Tracy, the judge that ruled over the first case coined a term “The wild beast standard” that states “for someone to be insane he must be totally deprived of his understanding and memory, and not know what he is doing anymore than an infant, a brute, or a wild beast” (Neville, 2010, pp.3-4). After the Daniel M’Naghten case, a man who attempted to kill a prime minister due to his belief that the prime minister was conspiring against him ended up killing the secretary, there was a new rule many states began to follow. After M’Naghten was found insane by multiple experts because he was unable to know the difference of right and wrong therefore he was acquitted of all charges (Neville, 2010, p. 5) a rule was developed labeled after M’Naghten.…