Insanity Defense

[Chocoholic]

I am thinking about using the insanity defense.
Can anyone give me tips how to lay the ground work before I commit the crime?

Mods if you could delete this thread by 6pm Saturday that would be great.

[dwarfthrower]

Smearing stuff with your fecal matter is always a good one.

[SamBo]

Drool. Lots of drool.

[matty]

running around naked?
walk around looking tweaky in a shopping center and then suddenly stop and scream?



..i dont know

[tikdoph]

Tell them you voted for the Family First Party.

[kré]

Tell them you voted for the Family First Party.
http://www.crayonline.com/smilies/werd.gif

[Sagacious]

That depends if you are trying to establish an insanity defense as opposed to a non-insane automatism.

[Sagacious]

26 Presumption of sanity

Every person is presumed to be of sound mind, and to have been of sound mind at any time which comes in question, until the contrary is proved.

27 Insanity

(1)A person is not criminally responsible for an act or omission if at the time of doing the act or making the omission the person is in such a state of mental disease or natural mental infirmity as to deprive the person of capacity to understand what the person is doing, or of capacity to control the person’s actions, or of capacity to know that the person ought not to do the act or make the omission.
(2)A person whose mind, at the time of the person’s doing or omitting to do an act, is affected by delusions on some specific matter or matters, but who is not otherwise entitled to the benefit of subsection (1), is criminally responsible for the act or omission to the same extent as if the real state of things had been such as the person was induced by the delusions to believe to exist.

The problem of course is that if you can prove you were insane at the time of the offense you have to prove you are sane at the time you are charged or you get put away in a mental assylum and that friends is worse than any prison if you are in fact not insane.

[dwarfthrower]

So what's subsection (2) saying? If you set fire to somebodies yard because the imaginary pixies in your yard tell you that the imaginary pixies in that yard are planning to attack your house... you get treated by the courts as though there were in fact two parties of warring pixies?

[thingy]

I am thinking about using the insanity defense.
Can anyone give me tips how to lay the ground work before I commit the crime?

a) Start talking to Sunol.
b) Start talking LIKE Sunol.

[Sagacious]

So what's subsection (2) saying? If you set fire to somebodies yard because the imaginary pixies in your yard tell you that the imaginary pixies in that yard are planning to attack your house... you get treated by the courts as though there were in fact two parties of warring pixies?
something like that

[dwarfthrower]

I could have sooo much fun with that.

[thingy]

I could have sooo much fun with that.
So could the pixies.

[dwarfthrower]

Yes... the pixies.

Note to everyone... if some yards get set on fire, the pixies told me to do it.

[Sagacious]

So what's subsection (2) saying? If you set fire to somebodies yard because the imaginary pixies in your yard tell you that the imaginary pixies in that yard are planning to attack your house... you get treated by the courts as though there were in fact two parties of warring pixies?
more to the point as if you had been told that your house was going to be attacked by marauding pixies. The court then goes on to examine the reasonableness of your setting the neighbours yard on fire on that basis.

[tikdoph]

a) Start talking to Sunol.
b) Start talking LIKE Sunol.
Damn, man... we're trying to keep her out of trouble, not have her committed!

[Sagacious]

In My Humble Opinion a defence of Non Insane Automatism is far better than Insanity IF it can be established.

[dwarfthrower]

more to the point as if you had been told that your house was going to be attacked by marauding pixies. The court then goes on to examine the reasonableness of your setting the neighbours yard on fire on that basis.

That's what I meant... if I convince the court that I was convinced of the existence of pixies and their intent to harm me, as long as I take measures that are - in the opinion of the court - reasonable actions to take when threatened by pixies - I should do OK.

[kré]

according to some people in this thread A Good Way of making a Sucessful Insanity Defense is to Capitalise Words that Need Not be capitalised.

[Sagacious]

That's what I meant... if I convince the court that I was convinced of the existence of pixies and their intent to harm me, as long as I take measures that are - in the opinion of the court - reasonable actions to take when threatened by pixies - I should do OK.
If you convince the court of the effect the pixies had on you you may escape punishment for the arson but its off to the padded room for you until you can prove your sanity

[dwarfthrower]

Easy... I believe they all perished in the fire ;)

[Scumbag]

What if I was to take a shitload of drugs, kill a whole heap of people, then pleed temporary insanity under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs ?

[Sagacious]

What if I was to take a shitload of drugs, kill a whole heap of people, then pleed temporary insanity under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs ?
still screwed because the intoxication section says that the defence of intoxication is not available if you play ANY part in becoming intoxicated.

[Sagacious]

Easy... I believe they all perished in the fire ;)
the problem with that is that in asserting they perrished in the fire you still assert they existed in the first place Now would you like a single or double breasted strait jacket.

[and3w]

you get put away in a mental assylum and that friends is worse than any prison if you are in fact not insane.

Not in my experience, it isn't!!

I have always found the classic Howard Hughes still gets good results..bottles full of precious bodily fluids, mormons, darkened rooms, only eating pre-packaged junk food..having the $1.7 billion dollars can be a bit difficult, but if I read this post correctly you have until saturday so it should be possible if you put a little extra effort in there.

[dwarfthrower]

Either as long as I can still reach my willy.

[SmaSheD_CoW]

What if I was to take a shitload of drugs, kill a whole heap of people, then pleed temporary insanity under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs ?

The insanity defence is only available to a person who is intoxicated/under the influence of drugs if the alcohol/drug consumption was not voluntary. That is, if you drink/take drugs, and kill a bunch of people, you can't plead insanity. It only applies if you unknowing took the drugs/alcohol (eg, if somebody slipped a pill into your drink). - s28 Qld Criminal Code, I believe most of the other states are the same.