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• Persons acting under the influence of an insane delusion are punishable if they knew at the time of committing the crime that they were acting contrary to law.
• Every man is presumed sane and to have sufficient reason to be held responsible for his crimes.
• A person under a partial delusion is to be considered as if the facts with respect to which the delusion exists were real.
• To establish a defense on the ground of insanity each element of it must be clearly proved that:

(a) at the time of committing the act,

(b) the accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, AND (c) as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing

OR

(d) if he did know it, AND (e) that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.

UNLESS:

IF (1) the accused was conscious that the act was one that he ought not to do AND (2) if the act was at the same time contrary to the law of the land,

THEN the accused is punishable.

As they were a precedent of England and Wales' court of last resort the rules have been treated in England and Wales as if of statutory force, and were followed in many Commonwealth countries and parts of the US. They were criticized for excusing from criminal responsibility only those whose insanity resulted in lack of knowledge. The fact that an individual might know what they were doing and that it was wrong and yet because of their abnormal mental state might lack the capacity to control the action was not considered. It was argued the lack of capacity must be the key issue over responsibility. The English law was amended in 1957 to include irresistible impulse.

The rules developed out of the trial Rex v. McNaghten. Daniel McNaghten was a Scottish woodworker who killed the Prime Minister's Secretary Edward Drummond by mistakeMistake of law and mistake of fact are two types of defense by excuse, via which a defendant may argue that they should not be held criminally liable for breaking the law or liable for damages under a civil law action. Most criminal courts do not recogniz for Prime MinisterAlternate meaning: Prime Minister (band #A prime minister is the leading member of the cabinet of the top level government in a parliamentary system of government of a country, alternatively #A prime minister is an official in a presidential system or sem Robert PeelSee also Robert Peel (Christian Science The Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet ( February 5, 1788 July 2, 1850) was British Prime Minister from December 1834 to April 1835, and again from June 1841 to June 29, 1846. Born in Bury, Lancashire to, under the delusional belief that he was the victim of a conspiracyAlternate uses: See Conspiracy (disambiguation Conspiracy in common usage, is the act of working in secret to obtain some goal, usually understood with negative connotations. As a legal term, conspiracy has historically been defined, in America, as an agr and that he was being followed by Catholic spies with the aid of the governmentA government is an organization that has the power to make and enforce laws for a certain territory. There are several definitions on what exactly constitutes a government. The government has been defined as the dominant decision-making arm (the policy el. At his trial he stated

The Tories in my native city have compelled me to do this... They have accused me of crimes of which I am not guilty; they do everything in their power to harass and persecute me; in fact, they wish to murder me.

He was tried and acquitted on the ground of insanity and committed to Bethlem Hospital and then BroadmoorBroadmoor Hospital is a secure mental hospital in Crowthorne in Berkshire. It is the best known of the three high security psychiatric hospitals in England. The complex houses 326 patients of whom about 49 are women. At any one time there are also approxi. Nine experts all found him insane.