Royal Commission on Capital Punishment report (1953)
The 1953 Royal Commission on Capital Punishment report was a recommendation responding to criticism of rules for the insanity defense in a criminal case. It responded to the M'Naghten rule that a person is legally insane if a mental disease prevents their knowledge of the nature or quality of their criminal act or that the act is wrong, and irresistible impulse rules that mental disease caused a lack of volitional control even if defendant knew the nature and quality of her act and that it was wrong. The report said M'Naughten should be "abrogated" and the jury should be left "to determine whether at the time of the act the accused was suffering from disease of the mind to such a degree that he ought not be held responsible."
