# Temporary Insanity - Right From Wrong or More to It? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 28, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-right-from-wrong-or-more-to-it/178010 "2003-05-28T13:47:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brazin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Brazin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brazin)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-right-from-wrong-or-more-to-it/178010/1 "2003-05-28T13:47:32Z")
Over the weekend my wife and I were watching a Court TV special and it centered around an individual that murdered another person and was claiming that he was temporarily insane in order to beat the charges. During the course of the show we were discussing how a person is legally determined to be insane. The answer is always something to the effect that in order to be considered insane you cannot know the difference between right and wrong. Without revealing my position, what do you guys think about this? Is knowing the difference between right and wrong a good way to determine if someone is insane, when it comes to murder? Is it possible to be insane, commit a murder, and yet still know the difference between right and wrong? B. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-right-from-wrong-or-more-to-it/178010/2 "2003-05-28T14:16:39Z")
I may be wrong on this, but as I understand it, criminal insanity is based on three factors: Inability to differentiate between right and wrong Inability to comprehend the consequence of one’s action, even if aware the action is “wrong” Inability to control one’s behavior, even if one understands the action is wrong and it has consequences ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-right-from-wrong-or-more-to-it/178010/3 "2003-05-28T14:20:55Z")
As such the inability to tell right from wrong is the only relevant issue. Whatever delusions the accused suffers from matter if and only if they affect his ability to tell right from wrong. ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-right-from-wrong-or-more-to-it/178010/4 "2003-05-28T14:28:25Z")
I believe it varies from state to state, and perhaps from court to court. ---
**Author:** ![doctordoowop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecc23a/32.png) [@doctordoowop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doctordoowop)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-right-from-wrong-or-more-to-it/178010/5 "2003-05-28T14:57:21Z")
The Mcnaughton test- either not know nature & quality of act ,or its wrongfulness.(Cognitive test). Model Penal Code- American Law Institute test- adds a conative part, must be unable to conform one’s actions to law. The latter was universally replaced by McN.-in US - post Hinckley verdict. There is no such plea as “temporary insanity.” One pleads insanity. If the trier of fact buys it, then defendant immediately moves for a finding of restoration of sanity. Most jurisdiuctions have a mandatory minimum in a state hosp., (Cal is 180 days), however. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-right-from-wrong-or-more-to-it/178010/6 "2003-05-28T15:08:29Z")
**j.c.** is correct in that it varies from state to state. It shouldn’t vary from court to court, but since individual judges and individual jurors are the ones making the decisions, in practice there will be some intrastate variation. **kunilou** has set out the right test in the more liberal states (and I subscribe to this view myself) – if either of these three conditions obtains, the perpatrator is not able to form the _mens rea_, that is, the mental state whereby the person makes (or should make) some sort of intelligent and voluntary decision to do the physical act of the crime. (Note that mens rea doesn’t for most crimes require that the perpatrator know that his action _is_ criminal, merely that he knows or should have known what the consequences of the action would be.) The traditional view of insanity is more restrictive than the version **kunilou** set out; it does not include the inability to control one’s actions. This, called the _M’Naughton_ test, is probably the majority view these days. FInally, **DocCathode** also mentions an important point – the question of legal insanity is separate from whether a person is clinically insane. For instance (to pick up something from another thread), were someone to believe we were all living in the Matrix, he may well be clinically insane. However, any killings he committed while under that delusion would still be murder; since killing someone in the Matrix kills their real body as well and ends their thought processes, this still fails the legal insanity test. IMO, the legal system should do a better job of educating both testifying doctors and also jurors on this difference; as it is now, in many cases the doctors and the lawyers are using the word in two different ways. –Cliffy, Esq. ---
**Author:** ![doctordoowop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecc23a/32.png) [@doctordoowop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doctordoowop)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-right-from-wrong-or-more-to-it/178010/7 "2003-05-29T07:33:12Z")
In Cal as an expert witness , if you don’t know the insanity test you can’t testify, or at best your testimony is worthless. In LA County, the largest single court jurisdiction in the US-yeah NYC is bigger, but has different courts for each borough- the court appointed experts on insanity-there must be at least 2 per case, must know the law to be appointed. All experts take law courses, & a fair number have law degrees too.