Ohio Insanity Case Analysis

This paper will include what the insanity statutes are in Ohio, the state that I live in. I will also talk about how often the insanity defense is used in the United States. As well as how successful this defense is. I will also discuss if psychologists should give their ultimate opinion in regards to sanity cases as well as the ethical issues that may rise from their opinions. Lastly, I will discuss how difficult it is to provide adequate psychological care for mentally ill patients while they are incarcerated in prison. The care they would have received had they been institutionalized in a mental hospital instead would have resulted in fewer deaths. According to FindLaw.com, the statute that Ohio uses for the insanity defense is the M’Naghten
According to our textbook, Wrightman’s Psychology and the Legal System, M’Naghten had paranoid delusions. He believed that the Prime Minister, Robert Peel, was aligned with the Tory Party in a conspiracy against him. He tried to run, but when that didn’t do the trick, he returned and stalked the Prime Minister. He later shot a man, who he believed to be the Prime Minister, but he actually killed the private security of the British Prime Minister. He was charged with murder, but after a couple of days of medical experts testifying, he was found not guilty by reasons of insanity (NGRI). (Greene & Heilbrun, 2011 pg.210) Our text describes the M’Naghten rule as “The jury ought to be told in all cases that every man is to be presumed to be sane, and to possess a sufficient degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes, until the contrary be
According to Frontline, it is used in “less than 1 percent of felony cases, and is successful in only a fraction of those” (Insanity defense faqs). Less than one percent, that’s how many times the insanity defense is used. According to the National Institute of Corrections, “In a 2006 Special Report, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) estimated that 705,600 mentally ill adults were incarcerated in State prisons, 78,800 in Federal prisons and 479,900 in local jails” (Mentally ill persons). Look at those numbers. The number of mentally ill adults incarcerated in state, federal and local prisons or jails is a staggering one million two hundred sixty four thousand three hundred mentally ill, that is 1,264,300 incarcerated in the United States. Why then, is the percentage less than1% when it comes to those who use the insanity defense during court? The Sentencing Project says that there are “2.2 million people currently in the nation's prisons or jails” (Incarceration). According to the numbers, the mentally ill make up more than 1% of those incarcerated. In fact, the mentally ill in the prison system is at 57% of those in the entire prison system. How is it that 57% of inmates in prison are mentally ill, but only 1% use the insanity defense? What is wrong with the insanity defense then? For starters, it is difficult to prove and the burden of proof lies on the