Trace the development of the "insanity defense."

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The insanity defense began with the M'Naughten Rule after Daniel M'Naughten attempted to kill the Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1843. The M'Naughten Rule states that in order to establish the defense of insanity it must be proved that at the time of the act the accused suffered from a "defect of reason, from disease of mind" that was such that he did not know the act he was doing or that it was wrong. Because of dissatisfaction with M'Naughten, the Alabama Supreme court added the irresistible impulse test in 1887, which holds that it is possible for some individuals to know what they are doing is wrong but to still be unable to control their actions. The Durham Rule states that an individual is not "criminally responsible if his unlawful act is the product of a mental disease or defect." The purpose of Durham was to simplify M'Naughten and to make it easier to determine insanity by making it dependent upon a medical diagnosis rather than more subjective impressions. In 1962 the ALI Standard also attempted to address the shortcomings of M'Naughten. While M'Naughten held that the individual must have no understanding of the nature of his acts, ALI states that an individual must lack a substantial capacity to distinguish between right and wrong. It combines M'Naughten and "irresistible impulse." There is not one established current standard across the United States criminal court systems for the insanity defense. About half of the states still employ the M'Naughten Rule, although several have added the irresistible impulse test, and half of the states use the ALI Standard.