Volume 59 Issue 2 Dickinson Law Review - Volume 59, 1954-1955 1-1-1955 Recent Cases Follow this and additional works at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlra Recommended Citation Recent Cases, 59 DICK. L. REV. 169 (1955). Available at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlra/vol59/iss2/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews at Dickinson Law IDEAS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dickinson Law Review by an authorized editor of Dickinson Law IDEAS. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. DICKINSON LAW REVIEW RECENT CASES CRIMINAL LAW - HOMICIDE - INSANITY DEFENSE - DEFINITION OF INSANITY - A MATTER OF FACT FOR JURY DETERMINATION Until July, 1954, the federal courts of the District of Columbia had used both the M'Naughten test' and the "irresistible impulse" test 2 in order to determine vhether a defendant was sane enough to be held responsible for his crimes. Under the M'Naughten test it was required that the defendant, in order to be found insane, must be under a defect of reason from a disease of the mind and as a result does not know the nature and quality of the criminal act or does not know that the act was wrong.' This has become known as the "right and wrong test". It was not until 1929 that the "irresistible impulse" test was adopted in Smith v. United States. 4 Here it was required that the defendant be impelled to do the act as a result of an irresistible impulse which was caused by a diseased mind which left the defendant powerless to resist the impulse.