From Insanity to Diminished Capacity: Mental Illness and Criminal Excuse in Contemporary American Law

Professor Fradella’s new monograph traces the development of defenses of excuse from their English Common Law roots to their various modern formulations under U.S. Law. It includes an interdisciplinary, detailed analysis of the historical evolution of the insanity defense, the diminished capacity/responsibility doctrines and related criminal defenses of excuse based on mental illness, including genetic-based defenses, the Black rage defense, the PMS defense, Battered Women’s syndrome defense, and the media intoxication defense. The study concludes with a discussion of the likely future of defenses of excuse in light of the U.S. Supreme Courts 2006 decision Clark vs. Arizona. There is no other monograph presently available that covers these topics and the work can be uses as a stand alone study of the field in Law or as a possible supplement for criminal justice/justice studies. Elaborate footnotes, citations, bibliography and index are included in this title.