insanity plea
6
7.3
- noun
- /ɪnˈsænɪti pli/
- Formal
:
defensa de locura
- In court, the judge explained the requirements for an insanity plea before deliberating on the case.
Examples
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The defendant's lawyer argued that an insanity plea was necessary due to his mental illness at the time of the crime.
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Is this laying the groundwork for a not guilty by reason of insanity plea?
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All he can do is get me out of here on an insanity plea.
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You know I should have defended you with an insanity plea.
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In all murder trials, it seems the insanity plea only makes up 1 percent overall.
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Now, as an expert in the area of the insanity plea... ...what do you recommend we do?
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Or do you think he was just angling for an insanity plea?
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But he copped an insanity plea.
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Judge Stanley Stern will issue his ruling on alleged killer Emil Slovak's insanity plea.
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They have seemingly already declared him guilty and are releasing evidence, including video, which will determine whether Holmes will be able to use the insanity plea.
Blog text (29)
Synonyms
1
8.4
A claim that a person is not to blame for a crime because of mental illness
How Plausible
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from the constituents: 'insanity' (mental disturbance) + 'plea' (a formal legal claim) yields a plea based on insanity claiming lack of responsibility due to mental illness. This noun–noun/legal phrase pattern is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Insanity plea is a phrase from the courtroom. A plea is a formal answer and insanity means a sick mind, so someone tells the court they were 'not responsible' for the crime because their mind was ill.