HIST 3850 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Penicillin, Monomania, Moral Insanity
6 Jan 2017
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Under what circumstances should judges and juries, when confronted with a defendant who is said to be mentally ill, turn this individual over, from the criminal justice system, to the mental health system? . Excusing the offender if they are mentally ill. The law could only apply to those who could understand the law. Recognized different reasons and causes for insanity. There are those who sometimes had understanding, and sometimes did not . Such a state might be the result of birth, or a later condition brought about by illness or an accident. But, the ability to plan and carry out a crime in itself shows a defendant was insane for the purposes of law. Proposed a very absolutist view of criminal responsibility. To be judged insane, one had to be entirely lacking reason, one"s state of mind indistinguishable from infant, brute, or wild beast .
