Criminal or Criminally Insane?
...hes and bruises, you opted for the police escort and continued on with your relaxing night. Several weeks later at the court hearing, the defendant’s attorney states the homeless man has been evaluated from a court certified psychologist and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Does this kind of diagnosis validate his actions? How do you feel about his diagnosis? Should this homeless man with a serious mental disability be sent to prison? Or should this sick man be sent to a mental hospital where he would receive proper medical attention his condition desires? Is this man considered a criminal or criminally insane? The answer is simple, with the diagnosis of schizophrenia; this seriously sick man would be sent to a metal hospital for the proper medical treatment needed. Contrary to what the public may believe persons found to be criminally insane would not be “let off” in the sense they would be freed. Persons found not guilty by reason of insanity could spend up to as much time as a sane person, who has committed a similar crime or longer lock away in mental hospitals. As a victim, the thought of your perpetrator receiving a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, would leave you, a reasonable person, as hopeless and confused. This individual, who brutally attacked you and scarred you for life, is being “let off.” Wrong! This individual has been seen by a court certified psychologist and diagnosed as mentally insane and will not be “let off” in the sense he/ she would be freed. In fact, some of those found not guilty by reason of insanity spend more time confined in a locked mental hospital than those sane criminals who are convicted of similar acts and imprisoned for them. People are "let off" in the sense that they escape being formally condemned as "responsible" for their acts... (Lally). The success rate of a defendant receiving a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity is virtually slim to none. It is raised approximately about one percent of felony cases and is successful only about one-quarter of the time (Lally). There are laws, which are straightforward in determining whether or not a defendant is...