Insanity Plea (Noun)
Meaning
(criminal law) a plea in which the defendant claims innocence due to mental incompetence at the time.
Classification
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents.
Examples
- The prosecution was prepared to challenge the defendant's insanity plea with testimony from a team of psychiatric experts.
- His lawyers were considering entering an insanity plea, given the mounting evidence of his fragile mental state at the time of the crime.
- The court rejected the defendant's insanity plea and found him guilty of first-degree murder.
- In the highly publicized trial, the defense team's strategy relied heavily on an insanity plea to explain the defendant's bizarre behavior.
- After evaluating the defendant's mental health records, the judge allowed him to change his plea to an insanity plea, which would be decided by a separate jury.