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Criminal Law Keyed to Kadish
M’Naghten’s Case
Citation:
8 Eng. Rep. 718, 10 Cl. & F. 210 (1843)Facts
In January 1843, Daniel M’Naghten, a Scottish woodturner, shot and killed Edward Drummond, the private secretary to British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. M’Naghten had intended to kill Peel, whom he believed was persecuting him as part of a conspiracy. At trial, medical experts testified that M’Naghten suffered from paranoid delusions, and the jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity. This verdict caused public outrage, leading Queen Victoria (who had herself been the subject of assassination attempts) to ask the House of Lords to clarify the law on insanity as a defense. The Lords then posed questions to a panel of judges about the proper legal standard for determining criminal responsibility in cases involving mentally ill defendants.
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