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Jared Loughner and Pleading Insanity ? CPC 25(b), CPC 25.5

By Walin & Klarich

Jared Loughner, the person allegedly responsible for shooting Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others, is charged with multiple crimes and may be facing the death penalty. He has not yet entered a plea, but reports indicate that he may have suffered from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the alleged crime. Can he walk by pleading insanity? Insanity is a legal defense where a defendant?s severe mental illness means that the defense is less or not culpable for committing the crime. Since Loughner has been charged with federal crimes, under the relevant law, insanity exists when the defendant suffers from a mental illness so severe that the defendant could not appreciate the nature and quality of his actions, OR that he did not know what he did was wrong...continue to full post

Full post as published by Southern California Criminal Defense Blog on January 12, 2011 (boomark / email).