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The Insanity Defense

By Baker Associates

The insanity defense is perhaps the most famous defense in all of criminal law. It is frequently used in capital murder cases and with good reason. Jurors are more willing to buy into an insanity defense if the crime for which the defendant was charged seems like a crime no sane or rational person could commit (for example, an especially heinous murder or the murder of a young child). Also, it may quite simply be the only defense that is available to a defendant who seems to have been caught red-handed and has a mountain of evidence piled up against him. The insanity defense is also a tough defense to raise successfully. Tennessee law places a heavy burden on defendants by requiring them to prove by clear and convincing evidence that they were in such a state of mind that they did not know the nature and quality of the acts they committed or did not know that their actions were wrong...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on June 29, 2010 (boomark / email).