Editing Insanity defense (section)

====Definition====
Each state and the federal court system currently uses one of the following "tests" to define insanity for purposes of the insanity defense. Over its decades of use the definition of insanity has been modified by statute, with changes to the availability of the insanity defense, what constitutes legal insanity, whether the prosecutor or defendant has the [[Burden of proof (law)|burden of proof]], the standard of proof required at trial, trial procedures, and to commitment and release procedures for defendants who have been acquitted based on a finding of insanity.<ref name="posthink">{{cite journal|last1=Callahan|first1=Lisa|last2=Meyer|first2=Connie|last3=Steadman|first3=Henry J.|title=Insanity Defense Reform in the United States - Post Hinckley|journal=Mental & Physical Disability Law Reporter|date=1987|volume=11|issue=1|pages=54–59|jstor=20784052|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/menphydis11&div=20&id=&page=|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180605032820/http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals%2Fmenphydis11&div=20&id=&page=|archive-date=2018-06-05}}</ref>

=====''M'Naghten test''=====
The guidelines for the ''[[M'Naghten Rules]]'', state, among other things, and evaluating the criminal responsibility for defendants claiming to be insane were settled in the British courts in the case of Daniel M'Naghten in 1843.<ref name="M'Naghten's case"/> M'Naghten was a Scottish woodcutter who killed the secretary to the prime minister, [[Edward Drummond]], in a botched attempt to assassinate the prime minister himself. M'Naghten apparently believed that the prime minister was the architect of the myriad of personal and financial misfortunes that had befallen him.<ref name="hottop">{{cite book|last1=Starer|first1=Daniel|title=Hot Topics: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Fifty Major Controversies|date=1995|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=0671887084|page=[https://archive.org/details/hottopicseveryth0000star/page/50 50]|url=https://archive.org/details/hottopicseveryth0000star|url-access=registration|access-date=20 October 2017}}</ref> During his trial, nine witnesses testified to the fact that he was insane, and the jury acquitted him, finding him "not guilty by reason of insanity".<ref name="hottop"/>

The [[House of Lords]] asked the judges of the common law courts to answer five questions on insanity as a criminal defence,<ref>Carl Elliott, ''The rules of insanity: moral responsibility and the mentally ill offender'', SUNY Press, 1996, {{ISBN|0-7914-2951-2}}, p.10</ref><ref>Michael T. Molan, Mike Molan, Duncan Bloy, Denis Lanser, ''Modern criminal law'' (5 ed), Routledge Cavendish, 2003, {{ISBN|1-85941-807-4}}, p.352</ref> and the formulation that emerged from their review—that a defendant should not be held responsible for their actions only if, as a result of their mental disease or defect, they (i) did not know that their act would be wrong; or (ii) did not understand the nature and quality of their actions—became the basis of the law governing legal responsibility in cases of insanity in England. Under the rules, loss of control because of mental illness was no defense{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}.

The M'Naghten rule was embraced with almost no modification by American courts and legislatures for more than 100 years, until the mid-20th century.<ref name="M'Naghten's case"/> It was first used as a defense in the United States in the case of ''People v. Freeman'' in 1847, where an Afro-Native man from Auburn, New York was tried for a quadruple murder. [[William H. Seward]] represented William Freeman and argued that Freeman was mentally insane after being committed to the [[Auburn State Prison]] for a crime Freeman insisted he did not commit.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bernstein |first=Robin |date=2024 |title=Freeman's Challenge: The Murder That Shook America's Original Prison for Profit |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |page=135}}</ref> This was a novel defense at the time, and produced much controversy in the town of Auburn, New York, and throughout the United States at large.

=====''Durham/New Hampshire test''=====
The strict M'Naghten standard for the insanity defense was widely used until the 1950s and the case of ''[[Durham v. United States (1954)|Durham v. United States]]'' case.<ref name="hottop"/> In the ''Durham'' case, the court ruled that a defendant is entitled to acquittal if the crime was the ''product of'' their mental illness (i.e., crime would not have been committed but for the disease). The [[Durham rule]], also called the Product Test, is broader than either the M'Naghten test or the [[irresistible impulse test]]. The test has more lenient guidelines for the insanity defense, but it addressed the issue of convicting mentally ill defendants, which was allowed under the M'Naghten Rule.<ref name="M'Naghten's case"/> However, the Durham standard drew much criticism because of its expansive definition of legal insanity. It was abandoned in the 1970s, after the case of ''[[United States v. Brawner]]'' (1972).<ref>{{cite court |litigants=United States v. Brawner |vol=471 |reporter=F.2d |opinion=969 |pinpoint= |court=D.C. Cir. |date=1972 |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/471/969/259681/ |accessdate=2017-11-03 |quote=}}</ref>

=====''Model Penal Code test''=====
The [[Model Penal Code]], published by the [[American Law Institute]], provides the [[ALI rule]] - a standard for legal insanity that serves as a compromise between the strict M'Naghten Rule, the lenient Durham ruling, and the irresistible impulse test. Under the MPC standard, which represents the modern trend, a defendant is not responsible for criminal conduct "if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks ''substantial capacity'' either to appreciate the criminality of their conduct or to conform their conduct to the requirements of the law." The test thus takes into account both the [[Cognition|cognitive]] and [[Volition (psychology)|volitional]] capacity of insanity.

=====''Federal courts''=====
After the [[John Hinckley Jr.|perpetrator]] of [[Reagan assassination attempt|President Reagan's assassination attempt]] was found not guilty by reason of insanity, Congress passed the [[Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984]].  Under this act, the [[legal burden of proof|burden of proof]] was shifted from the prosecution to the defense and the standard of evidence in federal trials was increased from a [[preponderance of the evidence|preponderance of evidence]] to [[clear and convincing evidence]].  The ALI test was discarded in favor of a new test that more closely resembled M'Naghten's. Under this new test only perpetrators suffering from severe mental illnesses at the time of the crime could successfully employ the insanity defense. The defendant's ability to control himself or herself was no longer a consideration.

The Act also curbed the scope of expert psychiatric testimony and adopted stricter procedures regarding the hospitalization and release of those found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Those acquitted of a federal offense by reason of insanity have not been able to challenge their psychiatric confinement through a [[writ of habeas corpus]] or other remedies. In ''[[Archuleta v. Hedrick]]'', 365 F.3d 644 (8th Cir. 2004), the [[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit]] the court ruled persons found not guilty by reason of insanity and later want to challenge their confinement may not attack their initial successful insanity defense:
{{Blockquote|The appellate court affirmed the lower court's judgment: "Having thus elected to make himself a member of that 'exceptional class' of persons who seek verdicts of not guilty by reason of insanity...he cannot now be heard to complain of the statutory consequences of his election." The court held that no direct attack upon the final judgment of acquittal by reason of insanity was possible. It also held that the collateral attack that he was not informed that a possible alternative to his commitment was to ask for a new trial was not a meaningful alternative.<ref>{{cite journal
 |url         = http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/33/1/126?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&minscore=5000&resourcetype=HWCIT
 |author      = Nwokike, Jerome
 |title       = Federal Insanity Acquittees - Person Found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity May Not Attack His Successful Insanity Defense in Habeas Petition
 |journal     = Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
 |access-date  = 2007-10-11
 |volume      = 33
 |issue       = 1
 |page        = 126
 |year        = 2005
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20071229225408/http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/33/1/126?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&minscore=5000&resourcetype=HWCIT
 |archive-date = 2007-12-29
}}
</ref> }}

=====''Guilty but mentally ill''=====
As an alternative to the insanity defense, some jurisdictions permit a defendant to plead guilty but mentally ill.<ref name="posthink"/> A defendant who is found guilty but mentally ill may be sentenced to mental health treatment, at the conclusion of which the defendant will serve the remainder of their sentence in the same manner as any other defendant.