M'Naghten Rule

M'Naghten Rule
The test applied in a number of the states for the defense of insanity. This test, as prescribed by statute or case law, has a number of variations in the respective states applying such. Under M'Naghten test or rule, an accused is not criminally responsible if, at the time of committing the act, he was laboring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it that he did not know he was doing what was wrong. M'Naghten's Case, 8 Eng.Rep. 718 (1843). State v. Johnson, 383 A.2d 1012, 1022.
The standard under the "M'Naghten insanity" test to determine whether a person is sane is did the defendant have sufficient mental capacity to know and understand what he was doing, and did he know and understand that it was wrong and a violation of the rights of another. To be "sane" and thus responsible to the law for the act committed, the defendant must be able to both know and understand the nature and quality of his act and to distinguish between right and wrong at the time of the commission of the offense. People v. Crosier, 41 Cal.App.3d 712, 116 Cal.Rptr. 467, 471.
See also insanity, supra, regarding other tests used by courts in determining criminal responsibility

Black's law dictionary. . 1990.

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