The Insanity Plea (Essay Sample)

The Insanity Plea
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The Insanity Plea
In the Lorena and John Bobbitt case, a great deal of attention was drawn to it. On the 23rd of June 1993, John got back to his apartment while highly intoxicated (Snow, 2013). It was reported that since their marriage in 1989, John had consistentlysexually abused his wife. However, during one of the court hearings, Lorena asserted that her husband raped her on that night. Following the alleged rape, Lorena got from their bed when John was asleep, and proceeded to the kitchen. She then took a knife from the kitchen and went back to the bedroom, where she found her husband still sleeping and cut off a large part of his penis (Cusack, 2015). Immediately afterward, Lorena got out of the apartment, took her car, and drove off with the severed portion of her husband’s genitalia (Cusack, 2015).
After driving for a distance, Lorena threw the cut genitalia into a field. She later reported the incident to the emergency service. Luckily, the cut genital was found and reattached through surgery (Snow, 2013). The accused was arrested the same night the incident happened and taken into custody. During the trial, the attorneys for the accused gave details of the physical and sexual abuse that Lorena was subjected to. The defense attorneys maintained that the accused had clinical depression as a result of the long period of abuse that she suffered at the hands of her husband (Cusack, 2015). Additionally, the accused also claimed that her husband continuously bragged to her about his infidelities.
The mental disorder condition that the defense attorneys argued their client had can also be referred to as major depressive disorder. With this condition, an individual is often hopeless and sad for a long time. Additionally, a person does not concentrate on an activity, and one would be indecisive and may also suffer from insomnia. After this case had been deliberated by the jury, Lorena was labeled as temporarily insane at the time she committed the crime (Snow, 2013). Therefore, she was acquitted of the charges. In spite of this, Lorena was required by the judge to be evaluated by a psychiatrist for 45 days prior to her release (Snow, 2013).
Apparently, when the defendant is found to be deranged at the time when a crime is committed, he may be acquitted of the charges. However, this depends upon the deliberations that the jury had had, and what their final decision becomes. In some instances, the punishment given to the accused may be minimized as a result of their mental impairment, although they would be found guilty of their charges. Such cases are observed in states such as Montana, Idaho, and Utah, where the state laws fail to observe the insanity defense (Nemeth, 2011). However, in case the insanity defense is allowed by a court, the accused has to prove various factors such as failure to understand their actions or that they could not differentiate right from wrong.
Relationship between the Actions that Led to the Defendant’s Mental Evaluation
From the defendant’s testimonies, several factors could have contributed to the mental condition that resulted inthe crime being committed. For instance, she asserted that their family was not financially stable, and her husband had beaten and raped her on various occasions. The defense attorneys used this as the basis of explaining what had made Lorena develop major depressive disorder Hall & Bucholtz, 2012). Besides, both the prosecution and defense came to an agreement that the abuse took place, and that it contributed to the mental disorder that led to the assault. Sworn statements from both sides came to the accord that the physical and sexual abuse on the accused was intensifying, and the defendant constantly feared her husband (Snow, 2013).
Following the jury’s deliberation, the accused was acquitted as a result of her insanity, which engendered to an irresistible impulse attack John (Nemeth, 2011). Consequently, she held no liability for her actions. This is the test that was used by the court to examine the legal insanity of the accused. Apparently, the defense attorneys proved that the accused had a mental disorder at the time she committed the crime and that she could not make the right decisions. Also, she could not control her impulses to stop from doing the wrong thing. Hence, as a result of having clinical depression, the accused was considered not fit for trial.
Although the defendant was acquitted of her charges, she was required to undertake a mental evaluation for 45 days while still in remand (Snow, 2013). Although the alleged rape at the night of the incidence could not be proved, it was evident that Lorena was previously abused both physically and sexually by John. Additionally, the defense attorneys described to the court how the troubled marriage eventually made Lorena clinically depressed. Moreover, the prosecution’s case was further weakened by contradicting statements from John during cross-examination sessions by the defense attorneys. Due of the clinical depression that ensued from the abuse, the defendant would fail to make the right choices, and thus, she had to be mentally evaluated (Nemeth, 2011).
Evaluation of the Outcome
The outcome of the case under discussion was seen as a relief to Lorena since she could justify the incident to the continuous abuse that she suffered from her husband. However, the right thing that the defendant could have done was to report her husband to her the authorities for all that while. By doing so, she could have avoided the incident, a matter that was labeled as domestic violence (Moriarty...