WI: Mark David Chapman found Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity

On December 8th, 1980, Former Beatle John Lennon was Assassinated by Mark David Chapman outside of The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Chapman was arrested and charged with Lennon's murder and originally pleaded Not Guilty By Reason Of Insanity, but later decided to plead Guilty and was sentenced to Life Imprisonment with the possibility of parole within 20 years. What if Chapman did not plead Guilty and instead stuck by his insanity plea, went to trial, and at trial the jury had found him Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity? How would the public react? Would Chapman ever be released from the mental institution? Would this verdict butterfly away John Hinckley Jr. being found Not Guilty by reason of insanity?
 
Contrary to movies and television, an insanity plea works in only about 1% actual legal cases. The ability to form a plot to carry out a crime, written down and notated, and to otherwise orchestrate and plan a crime indicates proper mens rea, which directly contradicts the assertion that the accused was incapable of understanding that what they were doing was a crime in total opposition to the reasonable standards of society and law, despite a deranged mind and personhood which lead to the committing of the crime. To prove insanity requires an overwhelming body of evidence. When you stalk a victim and hide your intentions, it indicates the accused knows what they were doing was wrong, and that they were capable of constructive thought in their plot when the crime was committed.
 
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Contrary to movies and television, an insanity plea works in only about 1% actual legal cases. The ability to form a plot to carry out a crime, written down and notated, and to otherwise orchestrate and plan a crime indicates proper mens rea, which directly contradicts the assertion that the accused was incapable of understanding that what they were doing was a crime in total opposition to the reasonable standards of society and law, despite a deranged mind. To prove insanity requires an overwhelming body of evidence. When you stalk a victim and hide your intentions, it indicates the accused knows what they were doing was wrong, and was capable of constructive thought in their plot.

It also comes with other restrictions. There's no fixed length to the sentence...you get released when they've decided you're not a danger to yourself or others. That is a VERY high bar to clear if you're actually nuts enough to pull off a successful insanity defense.
 
It also comes with other restrictions. There's no fixed length to the sentence...you get released when they've decided you're not a danger to yourself or others. That is a VERY high bar to clear if you're actually nuts enough to pull off a successful insanity defense.

Frankly, at the end of the day, what person that commits a crime doesn't have some sort of problematic personality? Being a terrible person, an inability to work well with others, awkwardness, personal issues and a development of a state of mind that creates resentment, jealously, hatred and a sense of personal superiority which is not recognized in contrast to the victim who becomes the target of rage do not mean you are completely, severely, unabashedly disconnected with basic reality. Being "off" does not get you off. If you want an example of likely legitimate insanity, the example is Charles Guiteau. And even he did not get off on an insanity defense.
 
Frankly, at the end of the day, what person that commits a crime doesn't have some sort of problematic personality? Being a terrible person, an inability to work well with others, awkwaness, personal issues and a development of a state of mind that creates resentment, jealously, hatred and a sense of personal superiority which is not recognized in contrast to the victim who becomes the target of Arage do not mean you are completely, severely, unabashedly disconnected with basic reality. Being "off" does not get you off. If you want an example of likely legitimate insanity, the example is Charles Guiteau. And even he did not get off on an insanity defense.

Utterly wrong. As someone who struggles with both depression and PTSD, I can tell you actual delusions (which I have experienced) and personality flaws are completely different things.

There is a clear distinction between someone who murders his wife because he falsely believes she is having an affair, and a man who murders his wife because he falsely believes there is an insect from Mars giving him commands.
 
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Utterly wrong. As someone who struggles with both depression and PTSD, I can tell you actual delusions (which I have experienced) and personality flaws are completely different things.

There is a clear distinction between someone who murders his wife because he falsely believes she is having an affair, and a man who murders his wife because he falsely believes there is an insect from Mars giving him commands.

I already mentioned Charles Guiteau.
 
I already mentioned Charles Guiteau.

You have completely missed my point. The two beliefs -- believing the wife was having an affair when she wasn't, and believing you have an insect from Mars giving you commands when you don't -- are both factually false. But the first is not a symptom of mental illness, and the second is, and should be treated differently.

However, the legal criterion for having an insanity defense has, I am told by my own therapist, nothing to do with whether or not you're insane. The legal definitions haven't been updated since the 19th century in most places, and weren't considered medically accurate even then. The prosecutors and politicians have no intention of ever doing so because they don't want to look "soft on crime". They don't see it as treating a medical issue, but as punishing a criminal.

Also, there's the public investment issue. In America, there is a lot more appetite to punish people than to help people. I have enough money that I can afford a therapist and my medications, and I have light enough skin that the two times I've been stopped by cops I explained I had medical issues and was sent on my way. If I were a poor black person with depression and PTSD, I'd be screwed, because the public money for treating mental illness vanished decades ago. The truth is that the mental health safety net in America, for almost all intents and purposes, is the police.
 
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