History Main / InsanityDefense

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 defendants -- both in fiction and in RealLife -- going for this defence under the mistaken belief that a plea of 'insanity' means a cushier time than a regular jail sentence. Also, in some jurisdictions, such as the District of Columbia, a person found not guilty of a sex crime by reason of insanity must register as a sex offender, as though that person had been convicted.

** 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, [[IncrediblyLamePun 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. [[{{Understatement}} Things didn't go well for him.]]

** 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, [[IncrediblyLamePun you'd need to be crazy]] to try it. 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. [[{{Understatement}} Things didn't go well for him.]]
** Also, not everyone who gets sent to Gotham is sent there due to being considered insane. Mr. Freeze is sane, but he's still there because it's the only imprisonment facility with [[Oubliette the technology to keep a cell refrigerated enough for him to survive in it]]. Granted, this probably counts as an abuse of his human rights because it keeps him from interacting with sane people, but he hates everyone anyway so he won't complain.

* Parodied in ''{{Community}}''

* The defense for the shooter in the recent Tucson incident is attempting to plead insanity. It will most likely not go over well.

In RealLife, the insanity plea is rare and difficult to succeed with. Perhaps one percent of criminal cases even attempt an insanity defense, and only about a quarter of those are accepted, primarily if the defendant already has a history of mental illness. Naturally, since the insanity defense is dramatic, it is used much more often in fiction.

A related concept is fitness to stand trial. This is often confused with the insanity defense, particularly since they often apply to the same people, but fitness to stand trial says nothing about their mental state when they did the crime. It's about whether their current mental state allows them to conduct an appropriate defense. For example, there was one guy who was clearly responsible for the crime he did, but while awaiting trial, he got brain damage from a suicide attempt and became unfit to stand trial. Rather than going to jail, he went to a care facility, and if he ever recovers enough he will stand trial.

** Also, not everyone who gets sent to Gotham is sent there due to being considered insane. Mr. Freeze is sane, but he's still there because it's the only imprisonment facility with the technology to keep a cell refrigerated enough for him to survive in it. Granted, this probably counts as an abuse of his human rights because it keeps him from interacting with sane people, but he hates everyone anyway so he won't complain.

** 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, [[IncrediblyLamePun you'd need to be crazy]] to try it.

A "Catch-22" effect can be noticed with many juries--if the defendant is capable of understanding that an insanity plea would be a good idea, then perhaps they're not legally insane. This is in fact closely related to the original ''[=~Catch-22~=]'', the dilemma discussed in that book that a serviceman who requests a discharge for insanity must be sane enough to think to do so.

* In the ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "Insane in the Mainframe", SimpleCountryLawyer 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."

* In TheDCU, most of the inhabitants of Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane have had a successful InsanityDefense entered on their behalf. Many of them are also, not coincidentally, crazy.

*** 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 ''Arkham Asylum: Living Hell'' mini-series features a white-collar criminal who takes an insanity plea, planning to spend a year or so in a nice cushy mental institution before 'regaining' his sanity, being released and absconding with his ill-gotten gains. However, the judge, furious that the jury actually bought his story, instead sentences him to be held in ''Arkham'', where the other inmates insult and in some cases mutilate him, attempts are made on his life, and the warden (who lost money in the scam), destroys papers that would've gotten him transferred to a regular prison (which he bribed the head psychologist for, and she was actually Jane Doe impersonating the head psychologist so they weren't valid, but still) . By the end of the series, his experiences have [[GoAmongMadPeople transformed him into a villain]] called the Great White Shark who actually belongs there.
** The [[NecessaryWeasel nearly abusive use of this defense]] among Batman villains in particular has caused more than one [[DanBrowned rant]] from [[http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/law/back20030401.shtml real legal professionals]]. tl;dr:Only [[TwoFaced Two-Face]] and [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]] The Joker are "legally" insane.
*** The article is a bit simplistic (not to mention out-of-date a bit; it was written in 1989). Firstly (though the article acknowledges this) whether or not the Joker is "insane" is DependingOnTheWriter- the likes of Alex Ross and Paul Dini are at pains to say that the Joker is "perfectly sane", by which they mean he is "merely" a psychopath who just loves commiting crimes (though again, psychopaths are not technically sane), and knows what he is doing. Arguably most DC writers no longer consider him genuinelly crazy. The Mad Hatter actually believes he ''is'' the Mad Hatter and thus really is insane, while the Penguin is now generally considered someone who isn't and won't end up in Arkham. Many villains are'nt in the article, regardless of their sanity- the Ventriliquist, for instance, is insane in the same way Two-Face is, both suffering a SplitPersonality.

** During the GoldenAge and 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.

** It's used for NightmareFuel in one SVU episode. 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 consequences of what he was doing. The prosecutor is infuriated that he 'got off easy' by not being put in prison--and then we cut to the man being put by one of the detectives into a mental institution, still unsure of what's going on, and seeing the various mentally disturbed people talking to themselves or wandering around in an unpleasantly gray facility. The final shot is the horror on the man's face.

Psychopaths are technically criminally insane as they have no conscience or empathy, and hence have no natural inhibition on commiting criminal acts. However, they are rational enough to appreciate that society views such actions as wrong, and usually understand that they are different from other people. As a result they are often treated as normal criminals and sent to ordinary prisons, particularly since they are generally considered incurable, and by the nature of their disorder can be disruptive to other patients. Moreover most evidence of psychopaths actually appearing cured turn out to be that they have simply learnt to modify their behaviour to suit the treatment. However, sme psychopaths do still end up in high-security mental asylums.

* One episode of ''CriminalMinds'' has Hotch tell ''the killer himself'' "you were sick. You didn't know what you were doing", because the man is freaking out while in custody, having just realised that he is actually guilty of the crimes they're accusing him of. The last shot of the episode is the killer in a mental institution. There are a number of other episodes where you don't see the killer in an institution, but it's pretty obvious that the defence applies.

*** The article is a bit simplistic (not to metion out-of-date a bit; it was written in 1989). Firstly (though the article acknowledges this) whether or not the Joker is "insane" is DependingOnTheWriter- the likes of Alex Ross and Paul Dini are at pains to say that the Joker is "perfectly sane", by which they mean he is "merely" a psychopath who just loves commiting crimes (though again, psychopaths are not technically sane), and knows what he is doing. Arguably most DC writers no longer consider him genuinelly crazy. The Mad Hatter actually believes he ''is'' the Mad Hatter and thus really is insane, while the Penguin is now generally considered someone who isn't and won't end up in Arkham. Many villains are'nt in the article, regardless of their sanity- the Ventriliquist, for instance, is insane in the same way Two-Face is, both suffering a SplitPersonality.

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 defendants -- both in fiction and in RealLife -- going for this defence under the mistaken belief that a plea of 'insanity' means a cushier time than a regular jail sentence. Also, in some jurisdictions, such as the District of Columbia, a person found not guilty of a sex crime by reason of insanity

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 defendants -- both in fiction and in RealLife -- going for this defence under the mistaken belief that a plea of 'insanity' means a cushier time than a regular jail sentence.

*** Two-Face probably wouldn't qualify, since his entire M.O. clearly indicates he understands what he's doing.
*** He qualifies because he does not know what right and wrong are and does not base his conclusions on what right and wrong are on any rational basis.
** The general justification is that the Batman villains are delusional psychopaths. While they may certainly be insane from a clinical standpoint, most of them would not fit the definition of insanity required to find them "not guilty". Put briefly, most of them understood what they were doing and knew what the consequences of their actions would be. That they felt no remorse or empathy for their victims would not excuse them from legal culpability. To put it simply, barring any other mental afflictions, an otherwise normal person who suffers from epilepsy and accidentally knifes someone because of a bright light is legally insane; a completely clinically insane psychopath who knifes someone is not.

Examples:

** The general justification is that the Batman villains are delusional psychopaths. While they may certainly be insane from a clinical standpoint, most of them would not fit the definition of insanity required to find them "not guilty". Put briefly, most of them understood what they were doing and knew what the consequences of their actions would be. That they felt no remorse or empathy for their victims would not excuse them from legal culpability.

A variant is "Temporary Insanity," in which the defendant is claimed to have been suffering from an "irresistable impulse" during the crime, but is now sane. Thus, they can be released immediately, rather than being incarcerated for psychiatric treatment. This defense was first used in the United States by U.S. Congressman Daniel Sickles of New York in 1859, after murdering his wife's lover. It was most prevalent as a defense during the 1940s and '50s.

This is an affirmative defense in which the defendant in a criminal trial is claimed to have been or to be unable to understand the nature or unlawfulness of their actions due to a mental defect or disorder, and thus not responsible for the consequences of those actions. "Insanity" here is a legal term, not a medical one, and the court decides whether it applies--though it will take the advice of medical professionals into account.