U.S. Supreme Court lets states bar insanity defense

[Rams]

U.S. Supreme Court lets states bar insanity defense

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/03/23/us-supreme-court-lets-states-bar-insanity-defense/23959154/

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday limited the rights of criminal defendants, declaring that states can bar them from using the so-called insanity defense in a ruling involving a Kansas man sentenced to death for killing four members of his family.
The justices ruled 6-3 that a 1995 Kansas law eliminating the insanity defense - which bars holding criminally responsible mentally impaired defendants who do not know right from wrong - did not violate the U.S. Constitution. The justices affirmed a 2018 decision by the Kansas Supreme Court upholding the conviction of the man at the center of the case, James Kraig Kahler.
Under the Kansas law, defendants cannot argue they were insane and unable to make a moral judgment as an excuse to criminal liability. But the law allowed defendants to argue that, due to mental defect, they did not intend to commit the crime.

Follow the link for the rest of the story.....

I happen to agree with Kansas.

Rams

[Crackerborn]

A fresh breeze of rationality in an irrational world.

[Valkorado]

I figure most folks know right from wrong, especially in crimes of brutal violence, etc.  Even if they're looney tunes.
Lock 'em up.

[Jess from VA]

The devil is in the details as not all insanity defenses are the same, state to state.  Some are more liberal than others, just like their states.

Really, as distasteful as most feel about the defense, it is rarely used, and even more rarely successful.

Most would not begrudge a defense for the man so mentally deficient (from birth or severe cranial injury) that they don't know who they are or what they are doing constantly and forever, as opposed to the guy who is fine, but just argues he was insane only at the time he committed his crime.  Hang all those guys (especially since long term metal commitments were done away with decades ago).

And if you don't know it, most prisons are full of guys (and gals) who are mentally defective in one or multiple ways (just not legally insane), and that is a very, very good thing.        

 

[Rams]

Quoting Mr. Spock, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Not that I really want to build any more prisons but, I will always vote to protect the innocent from evil.

Rams