A man gets out with no sentence after he kills his wife, all evidence pointed to him. A woman drowns her five children in the bathtub, because she hears the voice of satan. Many more of these cases have been dealt with and guilty people get off! Is there really justice in the Insanity Plea? Can anyone be "insane?" Is "insanity" a luxury only certain people can afford, or do you really have to be *coo-coo for cocoa- puffs* to be let off regular sentence all because you weren't thinking right? To me the insanity plea is outdated and not just- at all! After doing a search on it though I came across a history put out by IPTV on the Insanity Plea. While my opinion is anyone who commits crime is "insane" and needs punished to the just degree, maybe someone is looking out for the rare percent that actually is "insane" in what they do.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/history.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/history.html
I found this website to be very informative. After reading through the information on the website, I have to agree with the "Guilty but Mentally Ill" verdict. I don't understand how people could not be mentally ill to commit murder. One of the first tests I read about called the "wild beast" test is absurd. If someone took this test and scored high enough then they would not be punished for the crime, because they are seen as "bereft of sanity" or in other words, they didn't understand the wrong in their actions. The GBMI verdict is pretty self-explanatory. Their sentencing is that they receive mental health treatment while still being institutionalized. Another plus about this is that after they have been "cured" they must still serve the rest of their sentencing. I believe this is a much better outcome than for someone to just be let off because they were insane. I am glad that I looked around on this website. It taught me a lot about how people are punished and sentenced when it comes to being mentally ill.
I also found this website to be effective in telling the history of "not guilty by reason of insantiy" as well as giving examples that have happened in the past. As for me, I believe that there are a lot of mentally ill people who have committed crimes such as killing someone else and not really knowing what they did. However, I do have to agree with what Sen. Dan Quayle said after President Reagan and some of his staff were shot that having the insanity plea kind of gives criminals a way to get out of trouble for killing someone. It seems that anyone without a real mental disorder can commit a crime and then plead insanity for any reason and they have a good chance of getting away with the crime. I am glad that there is a system in which mentally ill people still have to be institutionalized or in a correctional facility if they are found guilty and that the criminal justice system has a way of determining who is actually mentally ill and who is not. This website taught me more about the insanity plea and how the sentencing works when they are found guilty.