research must take place, but also in practice by responding to the impacts of challenges in a suitable manner advocating for justice and reform.
Is Pleading Insanity a ‘Get out of Jail Free’ Card? By Hayat Alibhai, Year 12 North London Collegiate School Dubai
P
leading innocent by reason of insanity is a practice originating back in the 1840’s, a practice is recognised as an
excuse defence rather than a justification defence. The English court recognised insanity as “the witness who do not have reason whereby they can choose the good from the evil”. As clearly that definition would lack sufficient detail in modern day, the definition of an insane criminal is one that admits ownership of the crime(s) but lacks culpability due to their mental illness. If a criminal chooses to plead insanity, a psychiatric exam must be conducted prior to the trial through government paid forensic psychologists. Ideally, psychiatrists are forbidden to assert their opinion on whether they believe the criminal was in a state of mental insanity at the time of committing the crime, that burden falls upon the defendant. Psychiatrists are only limited to providing a mental medical
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