There is an immense difference between our common sense understanding of insanity and the permissible definition of insanity. Our general knowledge of insanity emphasizes on the idea of lacking common sense and cognitive reasoning skills and not knowing the difference between right and wrong. The legal definition of insanity is “(1) a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder and usually excluding such states as mental retardation, psychoneurosis, and various character disorders, (2) such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one form having the metal capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one form criminal or civil responsibility,” (Ireland, 1988). In reading this you can perceive why a juror or any one trying to understand this would become entirely confounded in the fact that the terms are so difficult to comprehend. Therefore, the juror or judge may go by his or her own understanding of insanity to advance toward a well-determined verdict, which could be the result of an unfair ruling. There has never been any evidence confirming that a human being should be in control of deciding whether another person is considered insane by the intellect of ones own mind. Unfortunately, people with mental illness appear to enjoy a substandard citizenship, where up until recently people saw mental illness as something you could talk yourself out of. Most people, including the media, have a jaded view of the whole insanity thing.

The insanity plea is nothing more than a sorry excuse to avoid appropriate punishment for illegal behavior and should have no influence on the punishment. In a majority of cases, especially murder trails, the insanity plea is simply a defense strategy intended to keep guilty defendants from capital punishment or serving well-deserved time in prison. Some defendants fake mental illness and their attorneys use this tactic as a way to confuse jurors with complex and unquestionable psychiatric evaluations. When defendants are found not guilty by reason of insanity, they are released from metal hospitals in a couple years which is earlier than they would be had

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