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The number of findings of diminished responsibility has been matched by a fall in unfitness to plead and insanity findings. [11] A plea of diminished capacity is different from a plea of insanity in that "reason of insanity" is a full defense while "diminished capacity" is merely a plea to a lesser crime. [23]
The idea of insanity in English law dates from 1324, when the Statute de Praerogativa Regis allowed the King to take the lands of "idiots and lunatics." The early law used various words, including "idiot", "fool" and "sot" to refer to those who had been insane since birth, [2] and "lunatic" for those who had later become insane, or were insane with some lucid intervals. [3]
Insanity can manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to other people. Conceptually, mental insanity also is associated with the biological phenomenon of contagion (that mental illness is infectious) as in the case of copycat suicides .
Furthermore, although the plea had to be based on some form of mental abnormality, that condition need not be one bordering on insanity. Instead the court ruled that diminished responsibility required the existence of an abnormality of mind which had the effect that the accused's ability to determine or control his actings was substantially ...
The 34-year-old ex-convict Joseph Eaton entered pleas of both not guilty and not criminally responsible, leaving him the option of an insanity defense against charges including four counts of murder.
People found not guilty in criminal proceedings by reason of a successful insanity defense. Does not include people who were found "guilty but mentally ill" or "guilty but insane". For people who avoided a verdict because they were insane during the court process, see Category:People declared mentally unfit for court
That defence, Mr Shakhnevich added, is different to a plea of insanity, in which his lawyers could argue that "he's not responsible for his actions because of some mental defect".
The insanity plea [ edit ] Among the most controversial affirmative defenses is the insanity defense , [ 8 ] whereby a criminal defendant seeks to be excused from criminal liability on the ground that a mental illness, at the time of the alleged crime, prevented him or her from understanding the wrongful nature of his or her actions.