M'Naghten rules
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Search complete. 13 mentions across 7 episodes found for "M'Naghten rules".
Oct 4, 2026
speaker_2HOST
The insanity defense is a perfect example.
speaker_2HOST
You have the historic common law standard called the M'Naghten right-wrong test.
speaker_2HOST
Under M'Naghten, the defendant must literally not know the difference between right and wrong.
speaker_2HOST
Then you have the modern model penal code standard, which asks if the defendant lacks substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of their conduct.
speaker_3HOST
So one is a very strict right-wrong binary, and the other is a softer substantial capacity standard.
speaker_2HOST
Exactly.
speaker_2HOST
On an exam, you are supposed to analyze the defendant's mental state under M'Naghten, conclude, and then separately analyze it under the model penal code.
speaker_3HOST
Let me guess.
speaker_1HOST
We must address criminal defenses and constitutional criminal procedure under the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.
speaker_0HOST
Key defenses include insanity, which is tested under various frameworks like the M'Naghten Rule, where the defendant lacked the ability to know the wrongfulness of the act or understand its nature, or the Model Penal Code test, where the defendant lacks substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality or conform their conduct to the law.
speaker_1HOST
Self-defense allows deadly force only if the defendant reasonably believes they are facing an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm.
speaker_1HOST
Under the Fourth Amendment, citizens are protected against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.
Naomi RyanGUEST
So by this point, 1856, we've just had, uh, so you've had the, the attempted killing of the king, which has led to a change in the law.
Naomi RyanGUEST
You then have a case, um, called the M'Naghten case, which led to the M'Naghten Rules, which basically sets down the law for insanity and says that you need to have a, an illness of the mind that means that you don't know how... you don't have any control over your actions, or you don't know right from wrong.
Naomi RyanGUEST
That's the sort of the shortest hand.
Naomi RyanGUEST
They are the same insanity laws we still have, by the way.
speaker_2HOST
Legal insanity is a specific rigorous test, not a medical diagnosis.
speaker_2HOST
The traditional test is the M'Naghten Rule, which stems from an eighteen forty-three case where Daniel M'Naghten tried to assassinate the British Prime Minister due to paranoid delusions.
speaker_1HOST
What does the, uh, M'Naghten Rule ask?
speaker_2HOST
The M'Naghten Rule is purely cognitive.
speaker_2HOST
It asks, due to a mental disease or defect, did the defendant fail to know the nature and quality of their act, or did they fail to know that the act was wrong?
speaker_1HOST
It's all about what they understood in their brain.
JanessaGUEST
It's M and then like an apostrophe, N-A-G-H-T-E-N.
JanessaGUEST
So I'm going to say Manhattan.
JanessaGUEST
It's not like McNaughton.
JanessaGUEST
There's no C. Manhattan? Manhattan?
Thomas SmithHOST
Uh-huh.
JanessaGUEST
The M test, monotone test, something like that.
Meghan SacksHOST
...
Meghan SacksHOST
I mean, when you teach the insa- Is this like the M'Naghten with irresistible impulse?
Amy ShlosbergHOST
This is different.
Amy ShlosbergHOST
Um, you know-
LionelGUEST
Okay.
LionelGUEST
So the law, years ago, with the M'Naghten Rule, said, all right, how do we say this? Is it enough to have mental illness? No.
LionelGUEST
The bottom line is you didn't know wrongfulness.
LionelGUEST
Wrongfulness.
LionelGUEST
But 99...
LionelGUEST
The, the insanity defense is never used, and when it is used, it's rarely effective.
LionelGUEST
Now, in Massachusetts, they don't use the M'Naghten Rule.
LionelGUEST
They use the McCool case, Commonwealth against McCool, 1967, which is a version of the model penal code rule.