Everyone knows about the insanity plea, how hard it is for someone to plea this way and how justice isn't always served when they do. The origin of the insanity plea begins with one of three cases, Queen v. Daniel McNaughton, along with Hadfield, and Oxford before the McNaughton case. All three cases set the basis for the insanity rule and all three were very similar in their plea for the insanity defense. Claiming they were mentally ill or had a mental disease. McNaughton was indicted for murder and had four doctors analyze him to determine the condition he had. He shot the Prime Minister's private secretary, civil servant Edward Drummon, in the back once. The police came and stopped him before he could get a second shot off. He claimed he was seeing delusions of persecution by what he called "the Tories". He said "I was driven to desperation by persecution".The jury, eventually without retiring, duly returned a verdict of not guilty on the ground of insanity. Through his trial, he has given the legal test of criminal insanity the name of M'Naghten Rules or McNaughton rules. The rule says To establish a defence on the ground of insanity it must be clearly proved, that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong.
More on the case can be found at this website.
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