Usage and Success Rate
This increased coverage gives the impression that the defense is widely used, but this is not the case. According to an eight-state study, the insanity defense is used in less than 1% of all court cases and, when used, has only a 26% success rate. Of those cases that were successful, 90% of the defendants had been previously diagnosed with mental illness.
Read more about this topic: Insanity Defense
Famous quotes containing the words usage, success and/or rate:
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, It depends. And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)
“Much of the success of life depends upon keeping ones mind open to opportunity and seizing it when it comes.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (18671945)
“I dont know but a book in a mans brain is better off than a book bound in calfat any rate it is safer from criticism. And taking a book off the brain, is akin to the ticklish & dangerous business of taking an old painting off a panelyou have to scrape off the whole brain in order to get at it with due safety& even then, the painting may not be worth the trouble.”
—Herman Melville (18191891)