Insanity Defense

• Insanity defense

• Data Sought to Blunt Insanity Defense

Niagara County prosecutors want to dig back into Hans S. Diefenbach's childhood to find information that might blunt an insanity defense in a murder case. Diefenbach, 47, of Lockport, is charged with second-degree murder in the April 21 stabbing of Norma J. Confer, 65, in her Washburn Street home. She died of her wounds May 25.

• Buffalo News
• October 28, 2011

• Insanity Defense

Background Although the insanity defense is probably the most controversial of all criminal defense strategies, it is also, somewhat ironica...

• Gale Encyclopedia of Everyday Law
• Criminal Law

• Insanity Defense Possible for Fatal Shooting

BANGOR - A hearing scheduled for Monday afternoon will determine whether Perley Goodrich Jr. is competent to stand trial, and if he is, defense attorney Jeffrey Silverstein said he will pursue an insanity defense on behalf of his client. Goodrich Jr. faces charges of intentional or knowing murder and depraved indifference murder in the 2009 death of his father, Perley Goodrich Sr. Silverstein said he does not intend to deny the events of early Oct. 26, 2009, when Goodrich Jr. allegedly shot his father to death and severely assaulted his mother, Sandra Goodrich. Silverstein, a Bangor-based attorney, said he will focus on his client's long history of mental illness, including the fact that he sought treatment twice in the days leading up to the tragedy.

• Bangor Daily News
• March 28, 2011

• Insanity Defense

A defense asserted by an accused in a criminal prosecution to avoid liability for the commission of a crime because, at the time ...

• West's Encyclopedia of American Law
• Fri–Jam

• Suspect in Torture-Slaying Might Seek Insanity Defense

One of six Greensburg roommates charged with torturing and killing a mentally challenged woman last year might pursue an insanity defense. In court documents filed Tuesday, the defense attorney for Melvin Knight requested money to pay for medical records needed to conduct a psychological evaluation to determine whether such a defense should be pursued.

• Tribune - Review / Pittsburgh Tribune - Review
• February 02, 2011

• Insanity Defense Gives Way to Plea Deal in Fatal Stabbing

Hans S. Diefenbach, who stabbed a woman to death in Lockport earlier this year, gave up his insanity defense Thursday in exchange for a plea deal that likely will make him a free man by the fall of 2019. Diefenbach, 47, of Genesee Street, Lockport, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was scheduled for sentencing March 8 by Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III.

• Buffalo News
• December 09, 2011

• 'You can't see why on a fMRI': What science can, and can't, tell us about the insanity defense.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

• Reason
• Vol. 39 Nbr. 3, July 2007

• 18 USC 17 - Sec. 17. Insanity defense

• U.S. Code - Title 18: Crimes and Criminal Procedure

• Insanity Defense has Varied Over Centuries

The insanity defense has been and, in some cases still is, a controversial subject within the legal and mental health professions and with the public at large. That's according to Ellsworth Lapham Fersch, who teaches courses about the insanity defense at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Fersch is a licensed clinical psychologist and a lawyer in Massachusetts.

• Bangor Daily News
• March 22, 2010

• Lawyers: Insanity Defense Is 'Difficult Road'

When lawyers for Esteban Carpio announced that they would pursue an insanity defense in front of a jury in their client's first- degree murder trial, attorneys in Rhode Island questioned the wisdom of that decision from the sidelines. According to the state's chief public defender, John J. Hardiman, jurors have so much trouble understanding the legal and medical complexities of the insanity defense that he advises all lawyers in his office to try such cases jury-waived.

• Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press
• July 02, 2006