Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Jauregui

Mia Jauregui

Writing 10

Ms. Ayik

8 May 2014

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Insanity is defined as a derangement of mind, although in some judicial cases the definition is warped. Criminals are able to plead not guilty due to insanity, which places them in psychiatric care, rather than prison. And one can presume that psychiatric care is a more appealing option than prison. Examples of judicial cases where the meaning of insanity has been altered to benefit the criminal include Bertram Porters and Jeffery Dahmers. Porter murdered his eleven month-old child and claimed insanity due to his state of mind during the crime. Porter was found not guilty and, after psychiatric care, walked free. Jeffery Dahmer, an infamous serial killer, pleaded not guilty due to insanity, although he was still convicted. A serious problem has risen in the legal system: how can a psychologist apprehend the mental state of a defendant during a crime they weren’t present for? They claim they are able to detect symptoms of insanity by looking at the criminal’s psychiatric history, followed by the conduction of interviews and close observation of the criminal throughout the case. But lawyers are misusing the insanity plea due to the heinous crimes committed, when in fact some are not insane. Insane is the derangement of mind, not a briefly altered mindset that gives reason to harm others.

In 1932, Bertram Porter murdered his own baby due to a martial dispute and bypassed a prison sentence. This case may be old, but it is a spectacle of the insanity defense, and can therefore be further dissected. Porter’s plan was to feed rat poison to his eleven month-old son and then take the poison himself, but the police came before he was able to take his own life. According to reports, he was lacking sleep and taking painkillers while also drinking a lot of caffeine, but does that mean he was insane? He had the choice of taking the painkillers, which according to Psychology Today “voluntary intoxication is excluded” (Schouten) in regards to an insanity trial, which also means that sleep deprivation should not have been considered since it was a result of his intake of painkillers and caffeine. In “Capital Punishment: Police Duty” an article regarding Porter’s case, Porter met with his wife “telling [her] that if she searched for him in half an hour, she would find the stiff bodies of father and son” (Knaus). Porter had planned the murder by telling his wife and allowing her the opportunity to stop him, which means he was aware of actions. But he still escaped imprisonment because of his claimed state of mind during the crime. Insanity is not a lapse of judgment during a moment of despair.

Jeffery Dahmer—known for necrophilia and cannibalism—was charged with the murder of fifteen men and pleaded not guilty due to insanity. According to “Crime Library” Dahmer’s lawyer’s “defense consisted of some 45 witnesses that would attest to various aspects of Dahmer's bizarre behavior and try to show that Dahmer's sexual and mental disorders prevented him from understanding the nature of his crime” (Bardsley), while the opposing side claimed that his actions were premeditated. Detectives then reviewed Dahmer’s confession where he claimed, “it's hard for me to believe that a human being could have done what I've done, but I know that I did it” (Bardsley). Dahmer admits to premeditating the muders, which is a sign of sanity (Bardsley). At the end of the trial Dahmer was found sane and guilty and was sentenced to 957 years in prison. Dahmer wrote an apology after the trail where he said, “I knew I was sick or evil or both. Now I believe I was sick. The doctors have told me about my sickness, and now I have some peace.” Dahmer was convinced he was insane, which allowed him to excuse his actions and brought him peace of mind. Dahmer is an example of a murderer who took the term insanity and stretched its meaning in order to benefit him, when he in fact did not have an altered state of mind while committing the crimes. Ultimately, what is at stake is the misuse of insanity in a way that benefits criminals.

Psychologists recognize that criminals plead insanity to avoid harsher sentences, but they claim there are notable signs to see if a criminal is staging their behavior. The first step of analyzing a criminal’s psychiatric state is to look at their history because “mental illness doesn’t develop over night” (Starr). They also review the crime scene report to make sure the criminals did not hide weapons or evidence—a sign that they were conscious of their actions. The next step is to conduct long interviews because those who are malingering their illness will lose track of their symptoms over time. Overall, psychologists do a thorough analysis on criminals before releasing a verdict on their mental state. But Porter and Dahmer were both approved by psychologists as being insane, when they were not by definition.

Lawyers have used the definition of insanity in inappropriate ways in order to give criminals the ability to dodge conviction. Bertram Porter premeditated the murder of his son by telling his wife his plans, which therefore proves that he was not in an altered state of mind; rather he was well aware and still committed the crime. He may have been under the influence of painkillers and caffeine, which resulted in sleep deprivation, but he had the choice of taking the substances and therefore they cannot be accredited to why he committed the act. Porter was a guilty man, but avoided imprisonment due to lack of enforcement on the true definition of insanity. In Jeffery Dahmer’s case, his lawyers used the term insanity and twisted it so Dahmer was made to believe that he must have been insane due to the abominable crimes he had committed, when he was in fact conscious of his actions. Dahmer, luckily, was unable to avoid imprisonment because during his confession he admitted that he was aware of the crimes he had committed. Even though he was found guilty, Dahmer was still made to believe that he was insane after the case. The psychologists continued to make excuses for Dahmer’s actions even when the case was finished, which gave Dahmer peace, when he was actually rightfully guilty.

It seems like a difficult task to judge whether a person is insane or not because it raises the question of who actually knows when a person is not in their usual state of mind. Psychologists have to conduct a thorough analysis of an insanity case in order to make sure the suspect is not making up their illness. Psychologists claim that the symptoms of those that are insane are very apparent, but then cases like Porter’s and Dahmer’s slip through, when they are not insane by definition. It seems that the courts should abolish the insanity plea because it has been shifted into alternate meanings, instead of following its definition. The courts should instead judge a case purely on the actions of a person and not on the altercation of their mind because insanity is not a term to be taken lightly.

Works Cited

Bardsley, Marilyn. "Jeffrey Dahmer." End of the Road — — Crime Library. Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

"Jeffrey Dahmer Biography." Jeffrey Dahmer. AETN UK, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

Knaus, Christopher. "Capital Punishment: Police Duty." The Age. Fairfax Media, 29 June 2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

Starr, Douglas. "How People Faking Insanity Give Themselves Away." Slate Magazine. The Slate Group, 7 Aug. 2012. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.