Editorial: Who gets to plead insanity?
A long-standing principle of Anglo-American law is that a defendant shouldn't be held criminally responsible for his behavior if mental illness made it impossible for him to tell right from wrong. Yet the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hold that the Constitution requires that defendants be able to assert an insanity defense. That may be about to change.
On Monday, the justices agreed to hear the appeal of James Kahler,
