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The principles expounded by this panel have come to be known as the "M'Naghten Rules". M'Naghten himself would have been found guilty if they had been applied at his trial. [6] [7] The rules so formulated as M'Naghten's Case 1843 10 C & F 200, [8] or variations of them, are a standard test for criminal liability in relation to mentally ...
[5]: 632–3 It responded to the M'Naghten rule that a person is legally insane if a mental disease prevents their knowledge of the nature or quality of their criminal act or that the act is wrong, and irresistible impulse rules that mental disease caused a lack of volitional control even if defendant knew the nature and quality of her act and ...
M'Naghten's defence had successfully argued that he was not legally responsible for an act that arose from a delusion; the rules represented a step backwards to the traditional 'knowing right from wrong' test of criminal insanity. Had the rules been applied in M'Naghten's own case, the verdict might have been different. [6]
People v Schmidt, 216 N.Y. 324 (1915), is a criminal case interpreting "wrong" in the M'Naghten rule for an insanity defense. [1]: 621 The M'naghten rule included that a person was not guilty because of insanity if, because of a mental disorder, the defendant was not able to know her act was wrong.
People v. Drew, 22 Cal. 3d 333 (1978), was a case decided by the California Supreme Court that abandoned the M'Naghten Rules of the criminal insanity defense in favor of the formulation in the Model Penal Code. [1] The decision was later abrogated by Proposition 8 in 1982, which restored the M'Naghten rules. [2]
The strict M'Naghten standard for the insanity defense was widely used until the 1950s and the case of Durham v. United States case. [ 56 ] In the Durham case, the court ruled that a defendant is entitled to acquittal if the crime was the product of their mental illness (i.e., crime would not have been committed but for the disease).
Edward Drummond (30 March 1792 – 25 January 1843) was a British civil servant, and was Personal Secretary to several British prime ministers.He was fatally shot by Daniel M'Naghten, whose subsequent trial gave rise to the M'Naghten rules, the legal test of insanity used in many common law jurisdictions.
This is an aspect of a more general insanity defense (see the M'Naghten rules). The defense "was first recognized by Scottish common law to reduce the punishment of the ' partially insane ' ." [ 8 ] It developed from the practice of juries in the 19th century of returning verdicts of guilty with a recommendation as to mercy or mitigation of ...