Insanity Defense: Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI)

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“Not guilty by reason of insanity” (NGRI) has often perplexed even the most stringent of legal and psychiatric professionals for centuries. Moreover, it has transcended into the pop culture, as a “loophole”for the criminal society. However, the insanity defense is only used in less than 1% of criminal cases, and used successfully in only 10-25% of those cases (Torry and Billick, 2010). In order to successfully be acquitted by reason of insanity, the legal team, paired with psychiatric professionals, must prove that the defendant is not legally responsible for the crime, despite the evidence that they executed the crime. They must also prove that the defendant, was or is currently suffering from a mental disorder, and that the defendant have/had a impaired logical control of their actions (Smith, 2011). According to Torry and Billick (2010), “A criminal act must have two components: evil intent (mens rea, literally “guilt mind”) and action (actus reus, literally “guilty act”)” (p.225), thus the defendant must prove that he/she did not have “mens rea” or “actus reus.” Equally important to note, the act itself must be voluntary and conscious. The the majority of the psychological and judicial court system have a reluctance to hold defendants who lack the capability needed to understand “right from wrong” (Torry and Billick, 2010). It has been proven that over the course of many years, the NGRI have been difficult to apply. During the early 1980’s, many states modernized their NGRI defense and even abolished the defense altogether. Instead of allowing the the “not guilty by reason of insanity” defense, many states have established a verdict of “guilty but mentally ill” (GBMI) (Smith, 2011). In order to make sure that individuals w... ... middle of paper ... ...r. Furthermore, they states that have abolished the defense have implemented firmer criteria to apply or prove the defense, about one-fourth of the states have established a separate verdict of ‘Guilty but Mentally Ill. This is used as an alternative (not instead of) the insanity defense,” (Torry and Billick, 2010.) This verdict is offered to the jury when the deliberation concludes that the accused committed the act indicted, but suffers from a mental disorder, perhaps, not at the level needed to meet the insanity defense (Torry and Billick, 2010.) Since many states have abbreviated their own “Insanity Defense” laws, or have abolished them, the United States Federal Government, should impose that the insanity defense be abolished, and in its place, a verdict enacted allowing mentally insane people to serve time, and yet have treatment during their prison sentence.

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