The insanity defense

“It is natural for the immature to harm others. Getting angry with them is like resenting a fire for burning.”
Unknown.


Crime has always been with us. The first willful action in human history was to break the law of the Garden of Eden. Also, we can even say that Adam was insane when he committed a crime.
According to the United States criminal law, “The insanity defense refers to that branch of the concept of insanity which defines the extent to which men accused of crimes may be relieved of criminal responsibility by virtue of mental disease.”(Albanese, Jay S, Criminal Justice, 2nd Ed.) Insanity is a legal, not a medical definition but it includes not only mental illness but also mental insufficiency. For the first time, people heard about insanity defense in 1843 during the trial of Daniel M'Naghten who argued that he was not...