What is the Insanity Defense?

This appeared in The Millennial Source

A decision by the United States Supreme Court could allow states to eliminate the so-called “insanity defense” that allows a criminal defendant to argue that they are mentally incapable of understanding right from wrong.

As of now, only five states fail to allow the insanity defense, but it is believed more states may move to bar it.

Though the insanity defense is often referenced in popular culture, its actual use as a legal defense has a spotty record.

Since the 1980s, the burden of proof for an insanity plea has fallen on defense teams, meaning they have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that their defendant lacked a fully functioning mental state that would otherwise allow them to be held fully culpable.

The Supreme Court decision

On Monday, March 23, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in support of upholding a lower court’s decision in Kahler v. Kansas. In its decision, the Supreme Court stated, “Due process does not require Kansas to adopt an insanity test that turns on a defendant’s ability to recognize that his crime was morally wrong.”