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{{trope}}
{{cleanup|The trope description is filled with [[Artistic License Law]] and needs a rewrite by somebody familiar with the topic.}}
{{quote|''"Well, the work offered by organized crime must hold an attraction to the insane."''|'''Dr. Jonathan Crane''', ''[[Dark Knight Trilogy|Batman Begins]]''}}
While the use of insanity as a defense has been known since ancient times, it was codified in English law by the M'Naghten Rules of 1843, and the United States adopted similar rules for its use shortly thereafter. Most countries in the modern world have some variation of the insanity defense available to criminal defendants. Some jurisdictions instead have "Guilty But Insane," where insanity cannot be a complete defense, but can be a mitigating factor.
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Along similar lines, the "Extreme Emotional Disturbance" defense argues mitigating factors compromised the defendant's ability to think rationally. For instance, a man who shot his wife after catching her in bed with her lover could argue his emotional state at the time makes him guilty of the lesser crime of Manslaughter and not 2nd degree Murder.
Since someone who has been declared "Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity" is incarcerated for psychiatric treatment until they are deemed no long a threat to themselves or others, this can result in a longer loss of freedom than a normal jail sentence would have caused. Because of this, a defendant has the right to insist that this defense not be used in their case. This has not stopped some
A "Catch-22" effect can be noticed with many
Another use of this trope common in fiction is for a floundering attorney to switch to an insanity defense as a last resort, ignoring the real-life procedural steps needed for this action. It almost never works, just emphasizing how doomed the client is.
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Another concept related to insanity, although rarely seen in media, is diminished capacity. Diminished capacity is a claim that the defendant was unable to form the mental state (intent, recklessness, negligence, etc.) required for their action to be a crime. Because diminished capacity is not an affirmative defense, but rather the negation of an element of the crime, the burden of proof remains on the prosecution. Additionally, a successful diminished capacity defense results in a verdict of "not guilty", rather than "not guilty by reason of insanity", so the defendant is not incarcerated for psychiatric treatment (unless the state begins civil commitment proceedings). As a result, diminished capacity tends to be preferred to the insanity defense in jurisdictions in which it is allowed (although the two can be, and often are, combined).
In the United States neither [[The Sociopath|psychopathology]] or a [[Hollywood Personality Disorders|personality disorder]] is generally accepted as grounds for an insanity plea, and most states will simply throw the perpetrator in jail like any other criminal if that is their mental illness, since though such persons may have the adequate [[Lack of Empathy]] that you can say they don't appreciate the ''moral'' reasons for why their crimes were wrong, in general they still understood that they were breaking the law, and having pathalogical justifications for doing so isn't good enough. However, other countries such as the United Kingdom do accept these as valid grounds, and many notorious British [[Serial Killer
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Tokyo Babylon]]'', Subaru encounters a woman who is trying to summon a dog spirit to kill the man who murdered her young daughter, since he had been deemed too insane to stand trial. She plans on using the insanity defense for herself afterwards, figuring that a judge would see the "attempted" ritual as proof that she had lost her mind before killing the man herself.
== Comic Books ==
* In [[The DCU]], most of the inhabitants of Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane have had a successful
▲* In [[The DCU]], most of the inhabitants of Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane have had a successful [[Insanity Defense]] entered on their behalf. Many of them are also, not coincidentally, crazy. However most of them are not legally ''insane'' by any reasonable interpretation. A pathological obsession with hats, cats, birds, or riddles does not mean someone isn't aware of what they're doing. The same goes for being an eco-terrorist, wanting to eat people, or most of the various eccentricities Batvillains develop while pursuing a criminal career.
** During the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] and [[The Interregnum]], the Joker was not considered insane enough to qualify for this defense. When he tried it, Batman easily proved that despite Joker's eccentricity, he was fully capable of understanding the illegality and consequences of his actions. It was only when the Joker became a homicidal maniac in the 1970s that Arkham Asylum became a necessity for him.
*** In ''The Joker: Devil's Advocate'' , a new D.A. decides to go for broke and push for the death penalty after a series of killings with the Joker's MO. After a "Trial of the Century" with accompanying media circus, he is found guilty and sentenced to death. However, he claims to have no knowledge of the murders. Batman, who has never known the Joker to deny any of his crimes, investigates and finds out that this time he really is innocent. Joker is returned to Arkham when this is revealed..
** The [[Necessary Weasel|nearly abusive use of this defense]] among Batman villains in particular has caused more than one [[Dan Browned|rant]] from [http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/law/back20030401.shtml real legal professionals]. It concluded that only [[Two
** The general consensus is that the insanity defense is almost guaranteed to work in the Gotham court system regardless of how much sense it makes legally but since it means going to Arkham, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|you'd need to be crazy]] to try it. In ''[[Arkham Asylum: Living Hell]]'', one white-collar criminal, unfamiliar with Gotham, made this mistake and found himself in Arkham instead of the cushy rehab center he expected to be sent to. Things didn't go well for him.
** Also, not everyone who gets sent to Arkham is sent there due to being considered insane. Mr. Freeze is ([[Depending
* When Hal Jorden, [[Green Lantern]], fought an opponent codenamed the Aerialist, it became obvious that the Aerialist was under a severe delusion making him believe his criminal actions were entirely legal and correct. Hal referenced the M'Naghten rules when wrapping up the case, his opinion being that the Aerialist would qualify for an Insanity Defense.
== Film ==
* In ''[[Anatomy of a Murder]]'', the defense's entire argument rests entirely on the "irresistible impulse" insanity defense.
* In ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace]]'', the hero Mortimer attempts to get his sweet old aunts committed to a psychiatric institution after learning of the [[Serial Killer|multiple murders]] they've committed and hidden in their basement. The [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarity]] comes from the fact that [[Beneath Suspicion|nobody will believe]] that they are insane unless he reveals ''why'' he wants them committed, so he has to [[Framing the Guilty Party|trick]] them into going.
* In ''[[Batman Begins]]'', Dr. Johnathan Crane (aka The Scarecrow) helps mob boss Carmine Falcone by testifying to the insanity of Falcone's thugs and having them put in [[Bedlam House|Arkham Asylum]] to avoid jail time. But while there, [[Mad Scientist|he does twisted experiments]] on them to [[Driven to Madness|drive them to insanity]].
* Aversion in ''Nuts'', where [[Barbra Streisand]] demands they declare her sane. The film notes (accurately) that if you are declared insane, you can be kept locked up for life, even for a crime that would only entail a few years in prison.
* ''Primal Fear'', ''A Time To Kill'' and ''[[One Flew Over the
** ''[[One Flew Over the
* ''[[Training Day]]'': Mentioned by one of the three wise men when he recaps to Alonzo how an off-screen criminal recently got off this way by pulling a stunt in court that made him seem mentally unsound.
* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' (movie only)
{{quote|
Ilsa: And therefore innocent. I was trying to save your life.
Rico: What you did was insult me, 'cause I knew exactly what I was doing. Then and now. }}
* ''[[
** Depending on which version you watch, William Friedkin's ''Rampage'' is either the opposite, or agrees.
* ''[[Inception]]'' inverts this; {{spoiler|Mal}} had herself declared sane by three different psychiatrists, so as to prevent {{spoiler|Cobb}} from being able to explain the nature of her madness, as part of her plan.
== Literature ==
* ''Primal Fear''. After the trial starts, an accused murderer's attorney realizes that his client has Multiple Personality Disorder (i.e. split personality) and that one of the personalities committed the crime. He tries to change his plea from "Not Guilty" to an
▲* ''Primal Fear''. After the trial starts, an accused murderer's attorney realizes that his client has Multiple Personality Disorder (i.e. split personality) and that one of the personalities committed the crime. He tries to change his plea from "Not Guilty" to an [[Insanity Defense]]. After a dramatic courtroom scene the judge agrees and sentences the client to a mental hospital for treatment. {{spoiler|At the end it's revealed that the client was faking insanity to get away with the murder}}. The concept remains in [[The Film of the Book]].
** The killer, for all his cunning, seems not to be aware of the "institutionalization is usually longer than prison" trope.
** On the other hand, in the sequels he manages to fool his doctors into thinking he's cured and get out-where he kills again.
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**** Which is perfectly legal in the US. Jury Nullification is a constitutional right for a jury to find a defendant not guilty, even if the evidence shows him/her to be guilty of the crime, if the jury feels the defendant doesn't deserve punishment.
** Historically, juries judged both the law ''and'' the facts, according to their sense of justice, as the "conscience of the community." Judges do not permit defense attorneys outright arguing for jury nullification though, so the thought experiment in the story might not be allowed in Real Life. In any case, once the jury has rendered a verdict of Not Guilty, it's final, no matter what the reasoning, whether explained or not. We can find many examples for this.
*** Which is the reason that in the book version the 'thought experiment' is performed by one of the jurors during deliberations and not by the defense attorney in the courtroom—since jury deliberations are private, the only way the judge is ever going to hear about said 'thought experiment' is if one of the jurors chooses to tell him, and by the end all twelve jurors were agreed that Carl Lee should walk.
* ''[[One Flew Over the
* Comes up in ''[[X Wing Series|The Krytos Trap]]''. Tycho Celchu is [[Clear Their Name|accused of murder]], and there's a lot of evidence that he did it. A few years ago, he'd been kidnapped by [[Manipulative Bastard|Ysanne Isard]], [[Manchurian Agent]] maker extraordinaire. People who think he did it are divided between thinking that he'd been brainwashed and thinking that he was a garden-variety traitor; there's evidence for both. His lawyer tells Tycho that if the Tribunal decides he was brainwashed, he'll be declared not guilty by reason of diminished sapience and put into a hospital to be treated, released when he's cured. That sounds nightmarish to Tycho, but the Tribunal's nightmare is that he'll only be there for a week or two before treatment ends and he'll be released. This would make the justice system seem impotent; [[Public Opinion Trial|the nonhuman public]] thinks he's a traitor and isn't very sure about their government as is. The ''human'' public is starting to believe that he's actually innocent, since there's proof of that too, and is being offered up to placate the nonhumans. It's sticky.
* In ''[[Red Dragon]]'' and ''[[Silence of the Lambs]]'', Dr. Hannibal Lecter was committed to a mental hospital after being convicted of killing and cannibalizing several people and the attempted murder of an FBI agent. The hospital's director Dr. Chilton describes him as a "pure psychopath". Lecter's case wouldn't fit the legal definition of insanity since, based on the discussions he had with Starling and others, it's clear that he was in full possession of his (admittedly impressive) mental faculties and capable of understanding the consequences of what he was doing. In ''Hannibal'' Starling explains that Lecter did not actually plead insanity, but rather that it was the jury that found him insane, the reasoning of the courts being that Lecter was such a respectable, successful, and intelligent individual that the only possible explanation for his crimes was that he was stark raving mad.
** In the [[Film of the Book]] the headlines read "Lecter Given Nine Life Sentences" or something like that, but he is still put in a mental institution for treatment, which does occur even when the defendant is found guilty but still has a disorder.
* [[Older Than Steam]]: In ''[[
{{quote|
* Parodied in ''[[
== Live Action TV ==▼
* The [[Made for TV Movie]] ''The Burning Bed'' is a good example of a well-supported "temporary insanity" plea.
* ''[[Law
** One episode has the unusual spectacle of a guy using an insanity defence while [[A Fool for
** One inversion occurred when an obviously insane defendant who murdered three people refused to allow his attorney to plead insanity... even though he was obviously guilty... and he was eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
* On ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'', sexsomnia, watching too much TV ''([[Oz]])'', borderline mental retardation (as noted below), schizophrenia, sexual addiction, even a brain tumor have all been successfully proffered as rape defenses, and in nearly all of these cases, the defense is valid. As with the [[Law
** It's used to chilling effect in an episode where a mentally disabled man rapes an old woman (causing her to have a heart attack) because her position greatly resembles a porn flick he was shown, and he didn't understand the nature or consequences of what he was doing, thus acquitted. The prosecutor is infuriated that he 'got off easy' by not being put in
** Subverted in episodes of both shows when insane defendants refused to plead insanity for different reasons, forcing the prosecutors to come up with a roundabout way to introduce the evidence of their insanity or compel them to reveal it by goading them into a courtroom outburst of some sort.
* In one episode of ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'', the user of the insanity defense is a ''police psychologist''. {{spoiler|The detectives eventually prove that he'd killed a man in a misguided and misinformed attempt to impress a woman he was in love with, with the
* Parodied in ''[[
* Used in ''[[
* One episode of ''[[
* The Firm on ''[[The Practice]]'' would cut-and-paste the
** The episode "Committed" showed the aftermath of one these: a serial killer who used a successful insanity defence some years ago hires Lindsey to help him get declared sane and released from the institution he is now in.
* Attempted by [[Serial Killer]] Nate Haskell in ''[[
** This would be a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for Langston, were it not for the sheer amount of [[Fridge Logic]] involved in the case- it is strongly implied that if Haskell ''were'' found insane, he would actually be ''let out of custody'', despite his ''entire defence'' boiling down to [[Idiot Ball|"I'm a sadistic, murdering psychopath. And I'll probably do it again."]]
== Radio ==
* "Tabard of Pizarro", an episode of ''Bold Venture'', had the guest star claim that he was framed for murdering his wife, and pled insanity so as to be free to eventually claim his revenge. (The villain of the story tries to frame the protagonist for murder during the course of the episode, so it seems likely the guest star is telling the truth.) Unfortunately, it was many years before he was considered fit to be released. {{spoiler|The eponymous tabard is a fake, created as physical therapy in the asylum, and used as bait to trap the villain. Oh, and the revenge thing didn't turn out so well, not being satisfying at all.}}▼
==
* The first ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' game had an [[Amoral Attorney]] pressure his client into using an insanity defense. {{spoiler|It worked, but the defendant's life was ruined as a result, when he could have been found Not Guilty because he hadn't committed the crime. So he killed the attorney fifteen years later}}.▼
* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', if you let the lawyer appointed to you handle the trial (without telling him that you have evidence of a Sith plot) after {{spoiler|you've broken into the Sith embassy in Manaan,}} then he'll try this as a last defense. It fails, and you're executed in a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].▼
▲* "Tabard of Pizarro", an episode of ''Bold Venture'', had the guest star claim that he was framed for murdering his wife, and pled insanity so as to be free to eventually claim his revenge. (The villain of the story tries to frame the protagonist for murder during the course of the episode, so it seems likely the guest star is telling the truth.) Unfortunately, it was many years before he was considered fit to be released. {{spoiler|The eponymous tabard is a fake, created as physical therapy in the asylum, and used as bait to trap the villain. Oh, and the revenge thing didn't turn out so well, not being satisfying at all.}}
* In ''[[Remember 11]]'', Keiko Inubushi avoided going to prison after murdering twelve people due to suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder. Instead, she was sent to the SPHIA psychiatric hospital.▼
* In ''[[Corpse Party]]'', this is how Yoshikazu Yanagihori avoided going to jail for abducting four children and killing three of him. He actually ''was'' pretty insane at that point {{spoiler|and he wasn't even the real killer, just an accomplice to the real killer, who was manipulating him}}, so a mental hospital was probably the best place for him. Unfortunately, security was not very good (it ''was'' 1973 Japan) and he ended up breaking out. He then broke into the school where the children were killed and [[Driven to Suicide|hanged himself]].▼
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' has a man defending his insanity plea with "Well, I killed a whole bunch of people. Crazy enough for ya?" [[Refuge in Audacity]], but as explained above, not quite good enough.
** Also inverted [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=72#comic here]
== Western Animation ==
* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Insane in the Mainframe", [[Simple Country Lawyer]] Hyperchicken uses the insanity defense in favor of Fry and Bender, and offers as proof the fact that "they done hired me as their lawyer." What then happens is that they're put in the mental institution, similar to what would have happened real life if they weren't found "Guilty but Mentally Ill".
** Note that this in a country where being poor has recently been classified as a mental illness.
* Judy suggests using this excuse when ''[[Doug]]'' is framed for stealing Mr. Bone's trophy. Doug mentions that someone else actually tried that before but still got in trouble ''and'' had to go to the school counselor twice a week.
* In an episode of [[Batman:
* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney
▲* The first ''[[Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney]]'' game had an [[Amoral Attorney]] pressure his client into using an insanity defense. {{spoiler|It worked, but the defendant's life was ruined as a result, when he could have been found Not Guilty because he hadn't committed the crime. So he killed the attorney fifteen years later}}.
▲* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', if you let the lawyer appointed to you handle the trial (without telling him that you have evidence of a Sith plot) after {{spoiler|you've broken into the Sith embassy in Manaan,}} then he'll try this as a last defense. It fails, and you're executed in a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].
▲* In ''[[Remember 11]]'', Keiko Inubushi avoided going to prison after murdering twelve people due to suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder. Instead, she was sent to the SPHIA psychiatric hospital.
▲* In ''[[Corpse Party]]'', this is how Yoshikazu Yanagihori avoided going to jail for abducting four children and killing three of him. He actually ''was'' pretty insane at that point {{spoiler|and he wasn't even the real killer, just an accomplice to the real killer, who was manipulating him}}, so a mental hospital was probably the best place for him. Unfortunately, security was not very good (it ''was'' 1973 Japan) and he ended up breaking out. He then broke into the school where the children were killed and [[Driven to Suicide|hanged himself]].
== Real Life ==
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* One of the better known cases in recent American history was the murder of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone in San Francisco. Former Supervisor Dan White's defense team was able to convince the jury that he was in such a mental state as to be incapable of premeditation, so he ended up being convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Among other things, they cited White's shift from health nut to junk food addict as evidence of his declining mental state. The references to junk food led to the coining of the term "Twinkie Defense".
** Although the term "Twinkie Defense" is often used nowadays to mean that eating the twinkies caused him to enter the state of diminished capacity. This argument was not actually used by the defense, but people think it was.
* A man in Alberta beheaded a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus. He was found not criminally responsible because he is insane. He was, however, deemed a significant
** A lot of people misunderstood what the verdict meant for the defendant, and there was some anger that he wasn't found guilty. Others, of course, pointed out that while he might not be in an actual prison, he'd spend a lot longer in a psychiatric
* A man strangled his wife in his sleep and was released as it was decided that his sleep disorder meant that he wasn't responsible for this act. New Scientist has included a disussion of how you can show whether or not someone has a sleep disorder (after staying awake for 25h a given tone woke up all the sleep disordered positive controls and non of the healthy controls).
* John Hinckley, Jr attempted to assassinate [[Ronald Reagan]] and is one of the few "successful" Insanity Defense stories. The verdict led to widespread dismay; as a result, the U.S. Congress and a number of states rewrote laws regarding the insanity defense. Idaho, Montana, and Utah have abolished the defense altogether. The dismay is ironic, as he has spent almost 30 years in a mental institution, probably more time than he would have spent in prison if convicted, certainly longer than many "sane" murderers spend in prison.
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* Jared Loughner is an interesting example of just how ''hard'' it is to pull this off in real life. Prior to killing six people, he'd been forced out of college and told he couldn't come back unless he could maintain a mental health clearance proving he wasn't a danger to himself and others. The sheer incoherence of his political and philosophical ramblings got him ejected from abovetopsecret.com, one of the more out-there conspiracy theory sites on the Internet, and countless witnesses on and off-line report him as having done everything from accusing his math teacher of "denying math" to spending thirty minutes in a bathroom and asking afterwards what year it was. As of this writing, it's thought that he'll probably be declared sane.
** This is largely because, unlike laymen, psychiatrists, doctors, and most importantly lawmakers, do not measure insanity by quirkiness or social ineptitude. In fact, insane people are often very socially adept (especially psychopaths with ulterior motives). Plus, while their insanity, by definition, makes them quirky in some sense, they often hide it well. For instance, insane people sometimes eat feces, but the ones who do will rarely, if ever, do so in public ([[Squick|though it does happen]]). Also their quirkiness is a '''symptom''' of their insanity, not the insanity itself. He's certainly proven to be weird, but that is not the same as being proven insane under law.
** However eccentric his behavior might be, if he still has enough functioning brain cells to comprehend the basic fact that it's illegal to kill people then he can still be legally tried for murder. As the blocktext at the top of the entry explains, you don't just have to be some kind of crazy to be legally insane, you have to be ''completely out of it''.
** The legal standard for involuntary commitment is 'there is a reasonable fear you will be a significant danger to yourself or others'. The legal standard for mentally unfit to stand trial is 'unable to know what you're actually doing or unable to mentally grasp the consequences for having done it'. Loughner clearly falls within the first, but since he isn't quite detached enough from reality to be unable to understand that real people actually died when he shot them, he still falls short of the second. And it's that second one he needs for a valid insanity defense in court.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Madness Tropes]]
[[Category:Artistic License Law]]
[[Category:The Courtroom Index]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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