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Insanity Defense

NCJ Number
95314
Journal
Mental Health Professional and the Legal System Issue: 16 Dated: (December 1982) Pages: 55-61
Editor(s)
S Pollack, B H Gross, L E Weinberger
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Mental health professionals who offer expert opinion evidence in insanity defenses are no different from other witnesses, except that they are experts, who are fulfilling their obligation to society by providing professional facts that help the legal trier of fact in the deliberations on the defendant's criminal responsibility.
Abstract
Mental health witnesses are never the legal decisionmaker on any legal issue, including the issue of criminal responsibility. The opinions they offer are gathered into the larger body of legal evidence pertaining to criminal responsibility. The legal exculpation of the mentally The legal exculpation of the mentally disturbed offender entails the basic humanitarian issue of not punishing where blame cannot or should not be imposed. For the insanity defense, medical data are related to legally admissible evidentiary facts that demonstrate mental impairment due to legally defined mental illness. Although mental health professionals often criticize the insanity defense as a legal ploy, they must upgrade their evidentiary contributions to fulfill the social, ethical, moral, and legal ends of the law. These underlying premises are the basic sources of strength and vitality for the insanity defense and have been woven into the fabric of law that structures and directs the functions of modern society. Ongoing attacks on the insanity defense thus meet considerable resistance.

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