McNaghten rules

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McNaghten rules rules or criteria for judging criminal responsibility where there is a question of insanity. The name applied to the answers given in the House of Lords in 1843 after the trial of Daniel McNaghten for the murder of Sir Robert Peel's secretary, Edward Drummond, when five questions were put respecting crimes alleged to have been committed by persons suffering from insanity.

According to the rules, the defendant must show that he or she is suffering from a defect of reason arising out of ‘a disease of the mind’, and that, as a result of this defect, was unaware of the ‘nature and quality’ of his or her acts.

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