State v. Students, Case Study Example

 Defense: Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity

This is a defense used historically in the cases of:

Case History of the use of The ‘Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity Defense’

John Hinckley, Jr. who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan

Steven Burky stalker of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner

Andrea Yates, the woman who drowned her five children in the bathtub; and

Daniel Gonzalez, a serial killer

 How is ‘Legally’ Insane defined by law?

The M’Naghten Test sets the standard for use of this defense in criminal procedural law. It is established by law that a person is ‘Legally Insane’ if he or she:

(1) Fails to understand the nature of his/her act; or

(2) Does not have the capacity to distinguish between what is right and wrong. (California Penal Code 25 PC — Insanity as a California legal defense. (“… (b) In any criminal proceeding, including any juvenile court proceeding, in which a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity is entered, this defense shall be found by the trier of fact only when the accused person proves by a preponderance of the evidence that he or she was incapable of knowing or understanding the nature and quality of his or her act and of distinguishing right from wrong at the time of the commission of the offense.” (Shouse Law Group, 2012)

Defense Arguments

Our client, Stu Dents is documented by psychiatric and psychological as well as medical records to be clinically insane.

Insanity is valid defense within the scope of the law and related court procedural regulations.

It is likely that our client committed the murder for which he is accused based on a preponderance of the evidence.

Because our client is indeed documented as having insanity it is viable and rational to use the defense of insanity because should the client indeed be innocent it would be a terrible injustice to fail in our provision of the best possible defense and as well our profession is ethically bound to provide the best possible legal defense to our client when representing them in a court of criminal procedure.