Word: pleas
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...plea of insanity, a cry for love...
...three others on March 30 outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, declared in a court brief that they will argue Hinckley's innocence by reason of insanity. In a case where the facts of the crime are so starkly clear-the defense admits to the shooting-an insanity plea may be Hinckley's only chance for acquittal...
...Hinckley case steps up a debate over the insanity plea...
Critics of the plea believe that the standard is inconsistent and impossible to apply fairly. If mental defects are exculpatory, asks Dr. Abraham Halpern, director of psychiatry at United Hospital in Port Chester, N.Y., why shouldn't heredity, poverty and cultural deprivations also be? Others, like University of Chicago Law Professor Norval Morris, contend that jurors cannot make much sense of the tortured language in the M'Naghten and Brawner rules. "Even the so-called experts don't understand them," says Morris. Instead of acquitting defendants with mental problems, some scholars would prefer to have a judge...
...fall back on down-to-earth considerations. Explains Justice Department Lawyer William Hardy: "They accept the defense where the defendant is guilty but it seems unfair to send him to prison. This is a way for the jury to compromise." They are least likely to accept an insanity plea when the defendant is extremely violent or dangerous. Example: the trial of a Californian nicknamed "the Vampire Killer," who disemboweled several of his six murder victims, drank their blood and ate their flesh. He was sentenced to death but died, presumably by his own hand, while on death row. In less...