Where there is no jury, the decision is made by a judge. If this verdict is reached, the judge may order that the person be committed to a psychiatric hospital or unit in broadly the same way as applies in the case of being unfit to be tried.
If someone is charged with murder, the verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity is one possible verdict. The Criminal Law Insanity Act provides for the concept of diminished responsibility in murder cases. The verdict is available where someone does not meet the test for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity but still was suffering from a mental disorder which substantially diminished his or her responsibility for the killing.
A conviction for murder brings an automatic life sentence. In other crimes, the judge has discretion in relation to sentencing and so can take into account any diminished responsibility which may exist. If someone charged with murder successfully pleads diminished responsibility, then the verdict is manslaughter.
The judge can then sentence the person to any appropriate length of time in prison. The Mental Health Criminal Law Review Board's main function is to review the detention of those found not guilty by reason of insanity or unfit to be tried, who have been detained in a designated centre by order of a court. At present, the only designated centre is the Central Mental Hospital. The Review Board also has responsibility for people who have been convicted of offences and who become mentally ill while serving their sentences.
The Review Board must have regard to the welfare and safety of the person whose detention it reviews and to the public interest. It may assign a legal representative to the person unless the person proposes to engage one. The Board is composed of a legally qualified chairperson and a number of other people, at least one of whom must be a consultant psychiatrist. It is obliged to review each detention at least once every 6 months.
Manion hurries inside and finds his wife Laura lying on the floor, raped and beaten by Quill. Manion picks up a gun, walks to Quill's place of employment, shoots and kills him, then calls the police. A defense psychiatrist testifies that Laura's injuries caused Manion to suffer a sudden psychic shock called dissociative reaction, and that dissociative reaction creates an unbearable tension that people may try to alleviate by taking immediate and often violent action.
The psychiatrist's testimony supports a conclusion that Manion was legally insane under the irresistible impulse test. This example is loosely based on the classic film, Anatomy of a Murder.
Defendants have to advise prosecutors prior to trial if they plan to rely on an insanity defense. Typically, defense lawyers and prosecutors each obtain their own psychiatrists to examine a defendant and testify at trial. Judges appoint government-paid psychiatrists for indigent defendants. Defendants have the burden of convincing judges or juries by either a preponderance of the evidence or by the tougher standard of clear and convincing evidence that they were insane at the time they committed a criminal act.
Evidence rules forbid defense psychiatrists from testifying to an opinion that a defendant was legally insane at the time a crime was committed. They can only provide a medical diagnosis concerning a defendant's mental illness.
Defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity are rarely set free. Instead, they are almost always confined in mental health institutions. They may remain confined for a longer period of time than had they been found guilty and sentenced to a term in prison. States may compel defendants adjudged insane to remain in a mental health institution until they convince a judge that they are no longer legally insane.
Guilty, but mentally ill GBMI is a hybrid verdict that some states have adopted in response to widespread and largely inaccurate popular beliefs that the insanity tests let too many guilty people escape punishment. The general purpose of GBMI laws is to imprison offenders rather than place them in hospitals, and afford them appropriate mental health services while they are incarcerated.
Research has dispelled many popular myths suggesting that the insanity defense is a boondoggle that lets criminals "get away with it" and get back on the streets immediately. Research consistently produces the following conclusions:. When asserting an insanity defense, the defendant essentially admits to having committed the wrongful act, but claims that they are not culpable because of their mental defect. It is important to recognize that the definition of criminal insanity can vary depending on the jurisdiction, meaning that one state may define insanity differently than another.
For instance, some jurisdictions use the irresistible impulse test, where defendants essentially assert that their mental defect made it impossible to resist their impulses.
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