Question

What is the likelihood of an attempt to plea insanity being successful?

Answer 1

He insanity defense in a court of law indicates that the defendant is not guilty for the criminal offense committed due to some psychiatric illness at the time of the criminal act and the condition of illness is considered to be the ground for plea of justice. The courts determine the magnitude of insanity of the defendant during the trial and if there is evidence that the defendant did not know what s/he was doing or cannot assess the wrongfulness of his/her action at the time of the crime. While, insanity as an excuse in the court has received much popularity in media, it is not a common occurance in actual trials and even in cases where it is used, it seldom leads to a successful defense. Thus, in the mere one percent of cases where this defense may be presented, the success rate is even lesser in those one percent of cases.