plea of insanity
1
8.4
- noun
- /pliː əv ɪnˈsænɪti/
- Specialized
:
informe de locura
- And of course, as all must know, these two must be provided a defense attorney, and any attorney faced with such overwhelming evidence against their clients must at least offer a plea of insanity or make a plea bargain.
Examples
-
During the trial, the defense presented a plea of insanity to argue that the defendant was not in control of their actions due to mental illness.
-
In many legal defenses, a plea of insanity can significantly impact the outcome by shifting the focus from guilt to mental health issues.
-
- Is this a plea of insanity, Miss James?
-
Mr. Breivik initially entered a plea of insanity.
-
The plea of insanity is expected to bring out some interesting facts and arguments concerning the race proclivities, religious fanaticism, etc., prompting the deed.
Blog text (25) -
Hotema has been acquitted in one case on the plea of insanity and is now on trial for the murder of the Coleman woman, but will probably be acquitted in that as well.
Blog text (25) -
You'll waste innocent taxpayers' dollars, abuse the weak legal system and enter a cowardly plea of insanity to a morally bankrupt defence attorney.
-
In August 1954, a plea of insanity was rejected by the jury in the Christchurch Supreme Court trial, and Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme were found guilty of murder.
Fiction book (1994) -
The jury deliberated for hours before deciding whether to accept the plea of insanity put forth by the defense in the high-profile case.
Synonyms
6
7.3
A claim in court that a person was mentally ill when they did a crime and not responsible for it
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a legal defense claiming mental illness' is directly derivable from combining 'plea' (a formal legal claim or defense) with 'insanity' (severe mental disturbance) using the transparent pattern 'plea of X'. This compositional legal construction is cross-linguistically common, so a learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Plea of insanity comes from the idea of a person telling a court that their mind was not working when they did something wrong. The word plea is a formal request and insanity means 'mental illness', so the plea asks the court to treat the person as 'not responsible' for the act.