It must be remembered that Jeffery Dahmer was determined to be legally sane, even though everyone who knows the details of his horrible acts knows that he was seriously mentally ill. If a person acts abnormally, they tend to be considered by many as "crazy" or "insane." At law, merely having a mental disease or mental defect is not adequate to mitigate guilt. The everyday use of the term can be misleading. The term insanity comes from the law psychology and medicine do not use it. A justification means that an act would normally be wrong, but under the circumstances it was the right thing to do. If, however, the man was a mugger and had the shooter at knifepoint, then the justification of self-defense could be raised. Under normal circumstances, for example, it would be a crime to shoot a man dead on the street. If a legal defense is successful, it will either mitigate or eliminate guilt.Ī justification consists of a permissible reason for committing an act that would otherwise be a crime. Both justifications and excuses are species of legal defenses. It must also be shown (if the issue is raised) that the actus reus and the mens rea was present, but also that the defendant committed the act without justification or excuse. To successfully obtain a conviction, the prosecutor must show all of the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt in criminal court.
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