A finding of "not guilty by reason of insanity" (NGRI) will show up on a background check. It is not the same as a simple "not guilty" acquittal. A verdict of NGRI also means that the person loses their right to own or possess firearms.
The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to a psychiatric disease at the time of the criminal act.
How does an insanity plea affect sentencing? If you successfully plead the insanity defense, then you will not receive the normal jail/prison sentence for your crime. Instead, you will be committed to a state mental hospital.
Legal insanity requires that the person, by reason of mental disease or defect was incapable of either: Knowing the nature of his or her act. Understanding the nature of his or her act. Distinguishing between right and wrong at the time of commission of the crime.
Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (Penal Code 1026) Patients judged by the court to be not guilty because they were insane at the time of the felony crime are committed to a state hospital for treatment for a period equal to the maximum sentence of their most serious offense.
“Not guilty by reason of insanity” is a plea by a criminal defendant who admits the criminal act, but claims that they were mentally disturbed at the time of the crime and lacked the mental capacity to have intended to commit a crime. Such a plea requires that a court conduct a trial on the issue of insanity alone.
Hinckley claimed that he was trying to impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was infatuated. In what was arguably the most influential insanity-defense case of the century, a jury acquitted him of 13 assault, murder, and weapons counts, finding him not guilty by reason of insanity.
“In order to be an excuse and defense for a criminal act, the person accused, and who claims temporary insanity as a defense, must prove that the crime charged was caused by mental disease or unsoundness which dethroned, overcame, or swayed her reason and judgment with respect to that act, which destroyed her power ...
A mental disease or disorder constituting legal insanity does not include "disorders that result from acute voluntary intoxication or withdrawal from alcohol or drugs, character defects, psychosexual disorders or impulse control disorders." It also does not include "momentary, temporary conditions arising from the ...
The impulsive nature, and the association to childhood trauma, dissociation, and frontolimbic abnormalities support the continued protection of borderline personality disorder under the insanity defense.