Library and publications | Pierce Law Reporter


Pierce Law Reporter

« Pierce Law alumna Donna Edwards wins congressional primary | Main | Professor Wright provides expertise on bankruptcy crisis »

Professor Scherr on the test for insanity pleas

Professor Albert "Buzz" Scherr, Pierce Law's criminal law expert, tells the Associated Press that New Hampshire has a two pronged test to determine whether a defendant is not guilty by reason of insanity. Read the full story: 

Insanity pleas rare, usually unsuccessful in NH murder cases
Associated Press 

Albert Scherr, a professor at Franklin Pierce Law Center... said New Hampshire law uses a two-pronged test to determine whether a defendant is not guilty by reason of insanity.

First, the defense must show that the defendant suffered from a mental disease or defect. Then, it must show that the murder was a product of that disease or defect.

Neither "mental disease" nor "defect" has been defined by the New Hampshire Legislature or the courts, Scherr said, which empowers juries more than in other states where there are elaborate definitions.

 

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Got News?

Want to announce something in the Reporter? Email the Who, What, Where, When, and Why to us at