Insane Insanity Plea The option to utilize the insanity defense in court should be supported because it is needed to acquit those individuals who had no control over their actions due to a physical ailment, to put a mentally ill patient in with the general prison population would be unconstitutional, and those who are mentally insane need special services for rehabilitation. The insanity defense should be available to those who had no control of their actions due to a physical illness. “D wounded a female neighbor friend whilst sleepwalking. They had been watching videos and she fell asleep on the sofa, he hit her with a bottle and a video recorder and grabbed her round the throat. He was sleepwalking at the time” (Harrison). This man …show more content…

That this man went to confess after the killings and that this man to choose to plea insanity would indicate his knowledge of wrongdoing, which should have labeled him ‘not insane.’ To plea insanity, one would have to know what they did was wrong. To plea insanity you must have had no knowledge of your wrongdoing. This Catch-22 proves the insanity defense needs to be reexamined and edited. Also, mental illness does not dismiss the fact that a crime has taken place, and those who are guilty should be held accountable. “…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” (Megan’s Law). Though they are found not guilty by reason of insanity they are still required to register, like the rest of the guilty. This law shows that our government still treats a person guilty of a crime though they have been legally claimed to be not guilty. This contradiction makes the insanity defense null. The insanity defense is unclear and ineffective, which is why the United States Judicial system should abolish the insanity defense. I feel that the United States Judicial system should employ the use of the sentence, “Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity.” We should not punish individuals for actions they had no control over or did not understand were wrong. Instead, we should provide rehabilitation for those