At the beginning of the year, two major trials featuring the insanity defense were set to demonstrate on a grand stage how we as a country perceive the defense. The first of those cases was the ...

A longstanding principle of Anglo-American law is that a defendant shouldn’t be held criminally responsible for his behavior if mental illness made it impossible for him to tell right from wrong. Yet ...

The definition of insanity, as Albert Einstein once famously put it, is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week ...

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Legislation will be proposed to make it harder to plead not guilty by ...

John Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, has been released from the psychiatric hospital where he was sent for treatment after being acquitted of attempted murder ...

You may believe that whether a person is found not guilty due to insanity depends on the courts, on the doctors, or even just on the money they paid their lawyer. It doesn’t. It depends on what you ...

Although the insanity defense is extremely popular in the media, books, and pop culture, law students are taught that the insanity defense is rarely used, and even more rarely successful. While this ...