Comments and Casenotes: To Kill a Mockingbird - Star Decisis and M'Naghten in Maryland

Authors

Kenneth Lasson, University of Baltimore School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 1966

Abstract

There are certain pillars of jurisprudence which, despite the erosive elements of time and progress, remain sacred. After more than a century of judicial dialogue the venerable M'Naghten Rule survives as the prevailing test to determine criminal responsibility. The rule states: "To establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or if he did know it, that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong."

Recommended Citation

Comments and Casenotes: To Kill a Mockingbird - Star Decisis and M'Naghten in Maryland, 26 Md. L. Rev. 143 (1966)