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Article: So guilty they're innocent. (criminal innocence and the sanity plea: the case of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer) (Editorial)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- March 2, 1992
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A STRANGE new twist is appearing in criminal law. Famous defendants are trying to use their own guilt to prove their innocence: a sort of reverse character defense.
The pioneering verdict here was the acquittal of John Hinckley for the attempted murder of Ronald Reagan on grounds of insanity. Hinckley's (and, incidentally, Mike Tyson's) lawyer, Vincent Fuller, brilliantly invented a legal loophole. It was quite clear that Hinckley had known that he was doing, knew it was wrong as well as illegal, and had planned the act carefully. But shooting a President to impress an actress was undeniably a flaky act. Fuller argued that the law required the state to prove ...