M’Naughten Test
“To establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.” -Daniel M'Naghten
Irresistible Impulse Rule
The defendant is not legally responsible if the two following conditions concur: 1) if by reason of the duress of …mental disease he had lost the power to choose between the right and wrong, and to avoid doing the act in question, as that his free agency was at the time destroyed; 2) and if, at the same time, the alleged crime was so connected with such mental disease, in the relation of cause and effect, as to have been the product of it solely.
Product Test
An accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect.
MacDonald v. United States
The jury should be told that a mental disease or defect includes any abnormal condition of the mind which substantially affects mental or emotional processes and substantially impairs behavior controls.
American Law Institute Test
A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct, as a result of mental disease or defect, he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality [wrongfulness] of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.
American Bar Association
A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if, at the time of such conduct, and as a result of mental disease or defect, that person was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of such conduct.
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