Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity: a Look Into the Insanity Defense
Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity: A Look into the Insanity Defense On Friday, March 3, 1843, the trial of The Queen v. Daniel McNaughton (West, Walk 12) began. The verdict of this trail changed the way the civilized world views the criminally insane. People who were criminally insane went from being viewed as evil and wild beasts to people who could not be held accountable for their actions at the time of the crime they committed. As time progressed, the insanity defense became an acceptable defense and rules were laid forth on how to declare people criminally insane. In this essay I will give the events responsible for the McNaughton trial and explain how it’s proceedings and verdict helped set forth the ground rules for the present day insanity defense. On January 20, 1843, Daniel McNaughton attempted to assassinate the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel. In front on numerous spectators McNaughton fired a pistol into the back of a man he thought was Peel but instead shot Peel’s private secretary, Edward Drummond. Drummond was not killed instantly but he died five days later. A police constable quickly seized McNaughton before he could even get a shot a second shot off and brought him to the Bow Street Police Station (Moran 37, Hacker 45, Asokan, Veeder 587,Weiner 974, Criminal Law 283, Bennett 289- 290). While being interrogated at the police station McNaughton has the revelation “The Tories in my native city have compelled me to do this. They followed me to France, into Scotland and all over to England. In fact, they follow me wherever I go… They have accused me of crimes of which I am not guilty; they do everything in their power to harass and persecute me. In fact they wish to murder me"(Asokan). Asokan tells us that it was well known that McNaughton was harboring an illusion that there was a conspiracy against him. He even believed he was being harassed by spies that were sent by the Catholic with the help of the Jesuits and Tories.
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