The Insanity Defence Of American And The Referential Value

The insanity defence has a long development history.In American criminal law.It has been influenced by utilitarianism theory and retributivism theory and has made great progress.This paper is divided into four parts which expound the forming process of American’s insanity defence and the referential value for us.The article first discusses the the position and theoretical basis of mental defense in American criminal law system and the differences between excuse and jusitification.Then we further analyzes the dispute of the American society for the current mental defense system.The second part of the article focuses on the development of mental defense.Disgussing the enormous contribution by a large number of cases about the identification rules.In this paper,the innovation points and disadvantages of the identification rules have been presented.Benifits from American’s federal judiciary,as M’Naghten Rule as the judgement standard of insanity has been introduced from the Great Britain,The standard of insanity has been enriched a lot.The standard of recognition went through the“Irresistible impulse”,“Durham Rule”,“Model Penal Code Rule”and the “federal standard”.The changes of the rules also contains the changes of the punishing purpose and the social security situation of the United States.The article then discusses the requirements for the insanity defencse in the criminal proceedings of the United States and the determination of the burden of proof and the standard of proof。The article introduced that during the trial,the United States Supreme Court established proof standards and Constitutional support and the changes in the role of psychiatrists and juries in the proceedings have been combed.The article also discusses some state courts have tried bifurcated trial to avoid the interference of the evidence of mental illness evidence.Finally,after the case of Hinkley,the federal court ruled that the burden of proof was transferred to the defendant by the prosecution,which would make it more balanced in the defence of the defendents and prosecution.At last,the article points out the existing problems in the defense of mental illness in China,and believes that the existing defects are the inequity between defendent and prosecution and the confusion provision about the burden of proof.Based on the reference to the American psychiatric defense,the suggestions and ideas has beenput forward.The author thinks that it should be based on the penalty system and national conditions of the country.Under the judicial procedure of our country’s,we should give the defendent the right to initiate psychiatric appraisal,the judicial partment should also start mental illness identification under certain circumstances,In this way,we can protect the legitimate rights and interests of mental patients more effectively.On the basis of the guilty verdict,it is suggested that the sentence type of “guilty but mental illness” should be added,and the executionof mental patients should be distinguished from normal defendent.It should also focus on the evaluation process of the trial capacity of the accused before the trial,In this way,we can safeguard the justice of criminal law more efficiently.