“A judge's ruling today that an Irvington babysitter who stabbed her 5-year-old grandson 57 times is not guilty by reason of insanity was followed by screams of agony from the father of dead child.” (Juri, 2009) This woman will be locked up, but in a maximum security psychiatric facility, not in a prison. Is this right? Is this right? Could be. What if this woman didn't know it was the child she was stabbing? What if she saw a dog attacking her, or perhaps she was even further from reality? This is the difficulty with criminal insanity cases. Sometimes, even if the person is mentally ill, a murder is a murder; theft is theft. Should criminal insanity be a viable defense in Canadian justice systems? Throughout history there have been three basic definitions of legal insanity. The first was the M'Naghten rule. This rule stated that a person was only considered legally insane if they were “incapable of appreciating their surroundings” (Montaldo, 2010) due to mental illness. This is a rather rigorous definition that does not leave much room for particular cases. It has caused a “black and white” view of criminal spree cases. The M'Naghten rule lasted until the 1950s when in Durham v. United States the court ruled that he "would not have committed the criminal act but for the existence of mental disease or defect." (Montaldo, 2010) the Durham method received a lot of criticism because it was very lenient on the definition of criminal insanity so much so that it almost depended on the judge to decide whether the person should be considered criminally insane or not. To address this problem a third method was created by the American Law Institute and was published as part of the Model Penal Code. The Model Penal Code provided a standardized idea of ​​crime… middle of paper…us reus. Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/actus-reusBurns, K. (2008, May 16). Criminal madness. Retrieved from http://karisable.com/crmh.htmDryden-Edwards, M.D., R. (2010). Schizophrenia. Retrieved from http://www.medicinenet.com/schizophrenia/page3.htmFarlex, . (2010). Defense of insanity. Retrieved from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Criminal+insanityFindlaw, . (2010). The insanity defense: history and background. Retrieved from http://criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/more-criminal-topics/insanity-defense/insanity-defense- background.htmlJuri, C. (2009, January 06). Judge accepts babysitter's insanity defense in Irvington toddler's murder. Retrieved from http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/a_judges_ruling_today_that.htmlMontaldo, C. (2010). The insanity defense. Retrieved from http://crime.about.com/od/issues/a/insanity.htm