McGeorge Law Review Volume 24 | Issue 3 Article 7 1-1-1993 Insanity Verdict the Psychopath and Post-Acquittal Confinement, The Abraham L. Halpern University of the Pacific; cGeM orge School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Abraham L. Halpern, Insanity Verdict the Psychopath and Post-Acquittal Confinement, The, 24 Pac. L. J. 1125 (1993). Available at: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/mlr/vol24/iss3/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals and Law Reviews at Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in McGeorge Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Insanity Verdict, The Psychopath, And Post-Acquittal Confinement Abraham L. Halpern* INTRODUCTION Over the past thirty years I have criticized the insanity defense on the grounds that, rather than uplifting the law's moral character, it makes a mockery of the criminal justice system; that its practical application is frequently harmful to the population it is intended to benefit; and that it undermines the processes of the law and tarnishes the public sense of justice.' In this paper, I shall focus on the successful use of the insanity defense by a defendant which results, in many instances, either in the hospitalization of the acquittee in overcrowded and chronically understaffed institutions or in his incarceration in prison. In the event that the acquittee following his institutionalization is found not to be mentally ill or * Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, New York Medical College; M.D., University of Toronto, 1952.