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Temporary insanity is a plea made by someone accused of a felony, claiming they were not guilty due to a reduced mental capacity at the time of the crime. It is difficult to prove and is used less frequently now. Motive may work best if the person had few motives for their actions, such as a person with paranoid schizophrenia who is now being treated.
A plea for temporary insanity is an application made by someone accused of a felony that suggests that the person was not guilty on several grounds. First, the defendant had a reduced mental capacity and could not understand the nature or quality of his behavior. Second, the defendant could not distinguish between basic ideas of right and wrong when he acted criminally. Since this condition was temporary, it means that the person is no longer insane, but was at the time a crime occurred. If a person is found not guilty due to a temporary condition, they can be released without any type of incarceration, either in a psychiatric hospital or in a prison.
Some states no longer distinguish between a request for temporary insanity and a request for insanity. A person can plead not guilty by reason of insanity or impaired capacity, and then use evidence that the impaired mental state was temporary in nature during sentencing. It can be difficult to prove temporary insanity since the defendant is usually no longer considered insane. Information for temporary altered mental state must be gathered in hindsight and reconstructed from a person’s behavior during the time an offense was committed. Witnesses who can attest to a person’s insanity at the time of the crime are invaluable, as they lend credibility to a person’s claim.
In the United States, the temporary insanity claim was first used in 1859. It has been successfully alleged that Daniel Sickles, a US Congressman, was insane when he killed his wife’s lover. The temporary insanity claim has quickly been associated with crimes of passion, but is still used less than commonly thought. Most cases with a temporary insanity request occurred during the mid-20th century, and the request is rarely used now. In fact, insanity motifs in general are used much less often than one assumes. They occur only about 1% of the time in court filings by violent offenders and tend to lead to a positive defense verdict in about a quarter of these cases.
One of the reasons the temporary insanity claim has fallen out of favor is that most juries believe that even a person experiencing exceptional emotional pain, such as when learning about an adulterous spouse, or perhaps losing a child, is probably able to distinguish right from wrong and understanding his acts. Temporary insanity, especially in the latter case, is often seen as a thinly veiled excuse for vigilantism. The desire for revenge doesn’t necessarily drive a person insane, and people can point to countless examples of others who have suffered losses and have not set out to kill or injure the people responsible for those losses.
Motive may work best if the person judged to be insane at the time of the act had few motives for their actions. For example, a person with a mental disorder diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia, who is now being treated and considered sane, would be more likely to sustain temporary insanity, especially if the defense can establish a mental disorder diagnosis in the past. If the person is currently healthy as a result of the treatment, it may seem inappropriate to sentence them to prison, provided the condition does not recur and the person is compliant with the treatment.
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