Deck 7: The Insanity Defense

Question 1

According to the Mens Rea doctrine

A) When a person commits a criminal act, the doer is guilty even he or she is not there mentally
B) The criminal act doesn't make the doer guilty unless the mind is guilty, or the criminal was there mentally during the crime
C) If a person is diagnosed with a severe physical illness that causes mental stress and this stress affected the person's decision during the time of the crime, then he or she cannot be found guilty
D) None of the above

Answer 1

The criminal act doesn't make the doer guilty unless the mind is guilty, or the criminal was there mentally during the crime

Question 2

"Insanity" is a _______ term that refers to an adult who lacks the mental capacity to be criminally responsible

A) Medical
B) Legal
C) Psychological
D) Common person's e.

Answer 2

Legal

Question 3

The concept of a separate verdict of "not guilty by reason of insanity"

A) Has always existed in American and English law
B) Is adopted from the ancient Muslim tradition
C) Didn't come about in English or U.S. law until the 1800's
D) It is not a separate verdict

Answer 3

Didn't come about in English or U.S. law until the 1800's

Question 4

The McNaghten Rule was a controversial ruling that came about in England during the rule of Queen Victoria. It stated

A) That to establish an insanity defense, it must be proven that at the time of committing the act, the person did not know that what he or she was doing was wrong
B) It must be proven that the person who committed the act has a chronic mental instability to decide between right and wrong at all times, not just during the time of the criminal act
C) All criminals, no matter if mentally ill or not, must be incarcerated for committing a crime
D) All mentally ill people have the "right" to trial by jury

Question 5

The American Law Institute standard for a lack of criminal responsibility

A) Was intended to reform and modernize the insanity defense standard
B) Was intended to make more difficult to use an insanity defense
C) Was intended to make it easier to use an insanity defense for habitual criminals
D) Was intended to be used instead of state laws on insanity

Question 6

The Insanity Defense Reform Act

A) Made insanity defense acquittals less difficult
B) Made insanity defense acquittals more difficult
C) Was a result of the controversial case of Kansas vs. Hendricks
D) All of the above

Question 7

_______ influences mock jurors' decisions about the insanity defense

A) The defendant's understanding of right and wrong
B) Past history of mental illness
C) Expert testimony
D) All of the above
E) A and B only

Question 8

Crimes that most defendants plead insanity for are

A) Violent crimes
B) Murder
C) Burglary
D) Misdemeanors

Question 9

Most NGRI cases are decided by

A) Plea bargain
B) Bench trial
C) Trial before a jury
D) A or B only
E) A and C only

Question 10

In NGRI cases, most defendants

A) Are held in psychiatric facilities for the same amount of time as they would have been if they were sent to jail
B) Are held for less time than they would have been if they were sent to jail
C) Are kept in psychiatric facilities until they have recovered from their mental illness and are no longer dangerous, and are held there for similar amounts of time as they would have been if they had gone to jail
D) Are not placed in psychiatric facilities, but are placed in jails and receive counseling and medication everyday

Question 11

The recidivism rate for NGRI acquittals is

A) Greater than that of convicted felons
B) Less than that of convicted felons
C) The same as that of convicted felons
D) Is irrelevant as they are found not guilty and should not be compared to convicted felons.

Question 12

In Ake vs. Oklahoma, the U.S. Supreme court held that a defendant is entitled to_______ if his or her sanity is in question or if capitol punishment is a potential sentence

A) His or her own psychiatric witness
B) The most expensive psychiatric witness that can be found
C) A last meal
D) All of the above
E) Just A and B

Question 13

The Guilty but mentally ill verdict

A) Is a partial responsibility verdict
B) Is a guilty verdict
C) Allows a defendant to be charged with a lesser crime
D) Both B and C

Question 14

Should jurors be minimally instructed about their legal responsibilities? Is it fair that law officials do not enforce specific instructions? The assumption many law officials hold is that enforcing rules is not necessary because all people have a common sense of community values. Do you agree/disagree with this statement? Why or why not? What may be some ramifications of this? Use the text to guide your answer.

Question 15

What are some issue that may arise from giving so much leniency to the testimony of mental health professionals in insanity cases?

Question 16

Trace the history of the insanity defense.

Question 17

What are the requirements for an insanity defense under the American Law Institute standard?

Question 18

What reasons are offered for experts not testifying on the ultimate issue?

Question 19

How successful is the insanity defense?

Question 20

Our modern understanding of criminal guilt

A) is that a person Is to be held responsible for his or her own intentional acts
B) is that any member of a family may be held responsible for the misdeed of any other member of the family
C) is that if a person has killed a member of another family, the whole of the victim's family is entitled to revenge
D) does not include state of mind at the time of offense (mens rea) as a factor

Question 21

The criminal law recognizes degrees of offender culpability. These are correlated with

A) the perpetrator's state of residence under a federalist system
B) the perpetrator's state of mind at the time of committing the crime
C) the victim's state of mind at the time of the crime
D) whether the victim attempted to escape

Question 22

The finder of fact (jury) in a criminal trial infers the mens rea in the case from

A) the prosecutor's initial statement to the jury
B) their intuitions about what the defendant might have done
C) evidence in the case of the circumstances of the act and what the defendant did
D) only what the defendant said, and if he or she didn't testify, it can't be determined

Question 23

A person is called "insane" when he or she

A) has a diagnosis of schizophrenia
B) commits a particularly gruesome and horrible crime
C) lacks the capacity to understand the nature of his o her actions and to make moral choices
D) has had a long criminal record dating back to adolescence

Question 24

The specific standards for assessing criminal responsibility are established

A) legislatively in each state and vary somewhat from state to state
B) by national law and are uniform in each state
C) by judges in each state and are therefore very different in each state
D) in each state following the "wild beast" principle

Question 25

A person lacking adjudicative competence

A) will also be found insane or lacking in criminal responsibility
B) will not necessarily be found insane because insanity refers to state of mind at the time of the crime
C) will be found insane because adjudicative competence refers to state of mind at the time of the crime
D) will be put on trial immediately

Question 26

The M'Naghten rule establishing an insanity defense

A) emphasizes an irresistible impulse
B) is the same as the product rule
C) means the defendant will go to a regular prison if found not guilty by reason of insanity
D) emphasizes cognitive capacity

Question 27

The American Law Institute Standard (ALI) established that

A) a psychiatric diagnosis was enough to establish an insanity defense
B) gave primary responsibility to the mental health professional to decide insanity
C) mental health expert testimony is necessary as evidence of a mental disease or defect, but the trier of fact (judge or jury) decides whether the defendant is insane
D) an antisocial personality disorder is evidence of a mental disease or defect

Question 28

Mock jurors seem to base their views of insanity

A) on the detailed and complex instructions judges give to juries
B) an their commonsense ideas about mental illness and criminal responsibility
C) whatever expert witnesses say especially if the testimony has a lot of technical jargon
D) on ideas that are very dissimilar from what legal thinkers consider important

Question 29

When compared to records and data collected by research workers

A) the public's estimate of how often the insanity defense is actually used is highly accurate
B) the public underestimates the rate at which the insanity defense is successful and the defendant wins a Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity verdict
C) the public's estimate of how long, on average, those who win Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity verdicts remain incarcerated is pretty close to correct
D) none of the above

Question 30

Defendants, especially those facing the death penalty,

A) very often fake mental illness
B) malingering or faking mental illness can be detected, however imperfectly
C) may try to fake symptoms of mental illness in a psychiatric interview before trial and if successful they will automatically qualify for an insanity defense
D) can't malinger because DNA evidence will reveal the faking

Question 31

A Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity verdict will result most of the time

A) in the defendant's immediate release because he or she is not guilty
B) in the defendant's incarceration in a mental hospital by civil commitment
C) in an acquitted defendant staying in prison a much shorter time than if convicted of a crime
D) when the defendant has been accused of a minor crime

Question 32

Defendants acquitted because they were found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity will be released from a mental hospital

A) much more quickly than other patients because their release does not have to be approved by a judge
B) as soon as their clinical conditions permit
C) but political considerations may play a part in the person's release especially in a case that had a lot of publicity
D) as soon as they were incarcerated in the hospital for the same amount of time they would have served had they been convicted of the crime

Question 33

The recidivism rate (rate of arrests for another crime after release) for persons convicted of a felony, and for those found Not Guilty for Reason of Insanity

A) is about the same
B) convicted felons have a higher recidivism rate than those found Not Guilty for Reason of Insanity
C) those found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity have a higher recidivism rate than those convicted of a felony
D) has resulted in family members of victims supporting release of those found Not Guilty for Reason of Insanity

Question 34

In the usual case involving a Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity Plea

A) there is a battle of the experts when there is a consensus about the defendant's mental state
B) mental health experts, family police and prosecutors tend to agree on the defendant's mental state because it is easy to see that an overtly disturbed person is not well
C) the sensational aspect of the case leads all parties to want to agree on a plea and minimize publicity
D) the most important factor is whether the defense mental health expert found the defendant mentally ill and probably insane

Question 35

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the "bible" of the mental health professions.

A) Every disorder listed in the DSM can count as a mental disease or defect for purposes of the insanity defense, especially according to the American Law Institute (ALI) standards
B) Because the manual has been demonstrated to greatly improve the inter examiner reliability of diagnoses made by mental health professionals
C) Most likely disorders classified as psychoses would serve as a mental disease or defect for purposes of a Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity defense
D) Because the legal formulations carefully and precisely define the terms mental disease and mental disorder.

Question 36

A mother on trial for murdering her children is

A) not eligible for a Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity Plea if she confessed to the crime
B) will be found legally insane necessarily if both the defense and prosecution mental health experts agree she has a mental illness
C) more likely to be found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity if she is charged with a capital offense because she will have a death qualified jury
D) less likely to be found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity if she is charged with a capital offense because she will have a death qualified jury

Question 37

The adversarial system is use in criminal trials

A) has no effect on diagnostic reliability because psychiatric diagnoses are objective and highly reliable
B) may affect diagnostic reliability because of "forensic identification" of experts with the party that hired the expert
C) is not a problem for mental health experts because the tests that they use can assess the defendant's mental state retroactively back to the time of the offense
D) is the best method because experts prefer it to the inquisitorial system in which judges take a more active role

Question 38

Expert testimony may be most helpful to jurors and judges

A) when it is long detailed and uses technical psychiatric language
B) when they present their informed speculations about the defendant's thought processes, subjective experiences and symptoms at the time the crime was committed
C) when the testimony is strongly based in abstract theoretical statements
D) the expert goers into great detail about distinctions that may be important to the mental health professional, but may or may not be or importance to the law

Question 39

The federal Insanity Defense Reform Act prohibited experts from testifying directly to the ultimate issue. In those states in which the Act applies

A) The expert is not allowed to express a direct opinion about the ultimate issue - whether the defendant was legally
B) Even though the expert is not allowed to express a direct opinion as to the ultimate issue, it doesn't matter because research shows most jurors believe experts did express such an opinion even if they didn't
C) a and b)
D) neither a) nor b)

Question 40

Legislators, in several states, to reform the insanity defense passed Guilty but Mentally Ill laws. These laws

A) provide just another name for the insanity defense and have exactly the same legal implications for the defendant
B) are an advance over insanity defense laws because they almost always have legally binding provisions to provide treatment to those convicted under a Guilty but Mentally Ill law
C) when used in studies with mock jurors, were shown to produce both fewer guilty verdicts and fewer Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity verdicts given the same evidence
D) were largely ignored in most states, and had little effect on the plea bargaining process.

Question 41

The new Mental Health Courts

A) divert from prison, criminal defendants who have mental illnesses, but are not necessarily legally insane, into mandatory community mental health treatment
B) requires defendants to plead guilty in order to be eligible for treatment
C) use probation officers to enforce compliance with treatment programs ordered by the court
D) all of the above

Question 42

Efforts to abolish the insanity defense by passing state laws have

A) proven unworkable because federal courts have found the laws unconstitutional
B) not apparently changed the beliefs of judges and lawyers that mentally ill offenders should be treated differently than ordinary criminal offenders
C) have been highly successful in drastically increasing the number of defendants held criminally liable
D) failed because psychiatric testimony about mental illness may not be allowed under an insanity defense but will be admitted to show mental illness under a mens rea defense