Research On The System Of Insanity Defense In The American Criminal Justice And Its Reference

Almost all countries take insanity as a legal defense ground,and the American insanity defense system is particularly perfect.Although the principles of identification procedures,mandatory medical procedures also prescribed in the Chinese Criminal Law and the Code of Criminal Procedure,these piecemeal regulations are not able to construct a complete insanity defense system and it is quite urgent to make this system accomplished.Ever since the birth of the American insanity defense system till its development to today,the pace of reform has never stopped.Relevant theoretical research and practical exploration are in a leading position in the world.What are the forces to push this reform?The author of this paper is trying to construct the insanity defense system in China,based on China’s national condition and the analysis on the American insanity defense system.Except for the introduction part and the conclusion part,this thesis is divided into four parts and totally 30 thousand characters.The first section details the basic theory of the defense system of the American insanity.American insanity defense system originated in the 1859 British Miner Dayton rules.The mental illness of insanity defense system is quite different from the mental illness in medicine.It is a legal terminology but not a medical term.The reason for not publishing those psychological ill people lies in that it can not made them scared of law and also contrary to the criminal justice retribution theory.The insanity criteria directly affect the judgment of the defendant of criminal responsibility.However,because the United States is a "dual track"justice system and insanity standards continue to evolve with the development of natural science,more than a century,the United States has adopted a number of standards,such as Miner Dayton rules "irresistible impulse" rule Durham rules,model Penal Code rule,and still without a unified standard until today.Differences in the criterion also led to disputes on whether or not to abolish of this system.Debates occur on whether the insanity defense system is being abused;whether it will decline the prevention functions of criminal law and whether it has threatened the public safety.The second part of is the application of insanity defense system in the U.S.Department of Justice.The insanity defense case involves five aspects:1.Aproposed on insanity defense,the defendant filed insanity defense should fulfill the obligation of informing,so that the prosecution had enough time to prepare for rebuttal.2.The allocation of responsibilities and proofs of allocation standards.Some jurisdictions require the prosecution to bear the burden of proof that the accused has no mental illness when the crime has happened,and often required to eliminate all reasonable doubt;while other jurisdictions require the defendant to prove he has mental illness with "clear and convincing" evidence when the crime occurred.3.How to balance the status and role of the expert witness in a insanity defense case,the United States judiciary has different opinions.4.Trial mode,Whether should the insanity defense case be phased trial and how accurately defined at all stages should be hearing the issues still need to be explored;5.Judgment,judgment mainly include three forms:the guilty verdict;not guilty conviction and not guilty conviction because of mental illness.In addition,how to deal with defendant with mental illness defense who is announced of non-guilty is another important issue,because this is connected with the defendant’s personal rights and the social security.To be specifically,this concerns with custodial treatment and the release.The third part of the thesis has proved the meanings of learning the insanity defense system of the American.Although insanity defense system has many controversial opinions in the United States,its positive significance is much bigger and are expressed as follows:1.insanity defense system starts from the protecting of mentally ill defendants,and maintains the justice in judicial process.2.The protecting on mentally ill defendants also expressed the protecting of the rights and interests of all citizens.3.Differences in the treatment of mentally sound person and mentally ill person also showed the legal spirit of crime should fit for punishment.The fourth part offered suggestions on how to construct the insanity defense system in China.China still has no the insanity defense system at present,and problems like inadequate legislation,judicial practice accreditation program starts hard,over-medicalization on the capacity determination of criminal responsibility,judicial substantial independence of the lack of mental patients to properly dispose of fatigue and other issues.In this regard,we can learn from the successful experience of the United States to design China’s insanity defense system and make it into application.We could start the program from the clear identification of mental illness,to prove that the statutory distribution of responsibilities and the standard of proof,reasonable positioning expert opinion,perfect judgment in the form,and properly dispose of insanity successful defended the accused for the smooth implementation of the program of the insanity defense system.