Tag Archives: NGRI

From M’Naghten to Hinckley: How American Courts Rewrote the Insanity Plea

In the last post, I looked at what it actually means for a defendant to be found “not guilty by reason of insanity”—what the plea does, what it does not do, and how courts think about responsibility when serious mental illness is involved. Here, I want to step back and trace how the legal testsContinueContinue reading “From M’Naghten to Hinckley: How American Courts Rewrote the Insanity Plea”

The Insanity Plea: What It Really Means to Be ‘Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity’

The Rojas Case: Ill or Evil? It was a morning like any other in Times Square: the sidewalks thick with commuters and tourists, the usual weekday rush flowing past the storefronts and billboards. Then, without warning, a burgundy Honda jumped the curb. People screamed and scattered. Some saw bodies thrown onto the hood and windshield;ContinueContinue reading “The Insanity Plea: What It Really Means to Be ‘Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity’”