Kamenar's Argument

The fact that the delirium defense mechanism has troubled even those who study the law for a existing is an indication of its indefensible status. Paul Kamenar, executive legal theater director of the Washington Legal Foundation had this to say about the insanity defense: "If a person intends to torture or putting to death a nonher, who c ars whether the reason for doing so was to impress a movie actress [as in the case of John Hinkley, Jr.] or to satisfy some twisted desire that society considers 'sick?'... Otherwise, the more depraved the mind and monstrous the law-breaking, such as Hitler's 'final solution,' the easier it is to invoke the insanity defense and leakage moral blame."

Kamenar's argument is sound, on the basis that it could be argued that anyone who extracts a heinous act is mentally ill as a prerequisite for committing such an act in the first place. If this is the case, would we not then absolve all heinous criminals from their heinous crimes? In reality, as the case of David Berkowitz will attest, not all criminals who commit acts of extreme violence are insane. Many of them, like Berkowitz, are just looking for an easy way out. As "son of Sam" killer Berkowitz later admitted from his jail cell (after the common did not buy his insanity defense), the whole things was just a fake.

There are those who would argue that the insanity defense is actually just a non-issue, because it is actually used so infrequently. Jonas R. Rappeport, health check Director of the American Academ

These reforms convey proved politically popular because they respond to people's heightened fear of crime and their concern that the courts are releasing criminals in any case easily and too quickly. People are more concerned with victims' rights today than in the past.

We are raise in putting violent criminals somewhere they are out of society's reach--for a definite period--and we are interested in punitive measures against such perpetrators--whether they are insane or not.

It was the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan that brought debate on the insanity defense to a head. For firing a handgun that almost killed Reagan and seriously wounded Press Secretary pack Brady and a secret service agent, John Hinkley, Jr., citing his infatuation with actress Jody Foster, successfully pleaded insanity and was committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. Under the ruling, he could be released if found to have recovered his sanity.

Although medical practitioners do sometimes misdiagnose, the field of psychiatry is especially suspect because of the inaccurate nature of the "science." Lawyers who use the insanity plea on behalf of their clients are asking psychiatrists to testify that their clients are, in fact, insane, or at least insane at the time of the crime. Law is not a science to begin with, and neither is psychiatry. Put the two palm together, and the possibilities for misdiagnosis and miscarriage of justice are very likely.

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