Insanity Defense and the Unabomber

Insanity Defense and the Unabomber Trial

The Insanity Defense: Crazy or Not?

The article "The Insanity Defense and the Unabomber Trial" by Barbara Sarason of the University of Washington touches on a number of important questions for all members of our society to consider. The insanity defense is used in only approximately one percent of felony cases and succeeds only a rare amount of the time, yet on television and in courtroom fiction it is depicted as being a common technique used by cunning defense lawyers. Shows like "Law and Order" are more responsible for shaping the public's opinion about legal dilemmas such as the insanity defense than factual court cases.

This may skew public opinion, but in many ways the same questions are to be asked.

Many people, such as the one of the victims of the Unibomber's actions, believe that regardless of one's state of mind, one should be judged and punished based on the actions taken. Even a person who is "mentally ill" should be punished the same as everyone else in society who has raped, killed, or otherwise taken an illegal path in life. The insanity plea, in many people's opinions, is just a trick to try to keep people for being responsible for their own actions. It might be seen as a similar social problem that the insanity plea exists as people who do stupid things, like keep a cup of hot coffee between their legs while driving and wind up spilling it, can sue someone else for their own actions to displace their own blame.

However, people who do not think that the insanity defense should be admitted are perhaps uninformed or misinformed on a number of important aspects of this dilemma. For example, most people do not realize the conditions of prisons. The way the prison system is set up, prisoners are given no chance of rehabilitation in most cases, and the abuse and mistreatment that takes place behind bars is actually a way to foster criminal behavior. People who are sent to prison are more likely to come out violent offenders than they were when they went in there. If someone is mentally weak in any way, such as those who would be eligible for the insanity plea, sending them to prison would be very dangerous indeed, for they would be more likely to be influenced into being worse criminals. Additionally, those with disabilities, physical or mental, are even more likely than the general population to the raped and sexually abused behind bars. Evidence shows that one out of four members of the prison population are sexually abused while in prison, and the chances for someone who is mentally challenged in any way is much higher. (SPR) Would a jury feel comfortable handing down a sentence of repeated raping and beatings to the defendant of a trial? Most likely, people would be outraged about this form of punishment, and therefore juries should not feel comfortable sending someone who is most likely going to be raped into the prison system.