Insanity defense

mr_fegelien

Theoretical question but I was wondering what mental disorders qualify someone to make a successful insanity plea in Ireland. I would have thought it's only paranoid schizophrenia but I've seen stories of people with autism and down syndrome go to the Central Mental Hospital.

Also, why is a person not able to plea insanity if committing a crime under the influence of drugs?

Peregrinus

This is a fairly complex technical area. Medical and legal understanding do not necessary line up.

Basically, for an insanity verdict in Ireland:

- You have to be suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the act you did ; and

- The mental disorder must be such that:

(a) you don't know what you're doing; or

(b) you don't know that what you're doing is wrong; or

(c) you are unable to refrain from doing it.

Either (a) or (b) would require a very high degree of delusion; (c) requires a high degree of compulsive or automatic behaviour. So suffering from a mental conditions which produces aggression, paranoia, etc that lead you to behave in uncharacteristic ways isn't enough, on its own, to establish an insanity defence.

The fact that somebody is admitted to the Central Mental Hospital does not mean that they have run a successful insanity defence. Convicted criminals who are in need of psychiatric treatment may also be admitted.

As for committing a crime under the influence of drugs, being drunk or high is not a "mental disorder". You need mental illness, mental disability, dementia or some other disease of the mind.

GM228

It should be noted that the "defence" of insanity is not always a defence raised, the prosecution for example can push for such against the wishes of the accused, and in that case the burden falls to the prosecution to prove the insanity (on the balance of probability), not the accused.

You could for example in a murder trial have the prosecution push for a not guilty of murder by reason of insanity verdict whilst the defence push for a guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility plea.

One of the few times in criminal law where the prosecutor wants a not guilty and the defence want a guilty.

It is often though that the special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity is in laymans terms considered to translate as guilty, but insane, but, is still an acquittal nonetheless.

Claw Hammer

Please of insanity have become a lot less common since capital punishment was ended. The problem with succeeding on a plea of insanity is that the next stage is indefinite detention in a mental hospital. In the event of a conviction, the sentence is likely to end at some point in the offender released. It is generally seen by an accused is better to get a finite sentence than indefinite incarceration.

mr_fegelien

Claw Hammer wrote: »

Please of insanity have become a lot less common since capital punishment was ended. The problem with succeeding on a plea of insanity is that the next stage is indefinite detention in a mental hospital. In the event of a conviction, the sentence is likely to end at some point in the offender released. It is generally seen by an accused is better to get a finite sentence than indefinite incarceration.

But I've heard that been sentenced in prison means getting a record when you come out, so in a sense it's also getting a 'lifetime sentence'.

At least going to a psychiatric hospital offers a chance to improve without getting a record. I watched a documentary on CBC Canada where an Asian-Canadian man suffering from psychosis stabbed someone on and spent 1 year in a criminal hospital. He was released and went to live his life back as normal while being strictly monitored to be on meds. No criminal record.