A coworker recently had jury duty. He came in from jury and told us he got into a shouting match with the judge and the defence attorney. They were claiming temporary insanity for a felon purchasing a firearm... His shoutdown went something like this...
If you are going to claim insanity for this guy, then you better prove to me he is batshit crazy. In other words, if he got out of bed, put his underwear on correctly, put his pants on correctly, put on his shirt correctly, socks and shoes correctly, cooked up his eggs and bacon, sat down and ate them, WITH A FORK, went outside and then you tell me he went temporarily insane, I will call bullshit on this...
Needless to say, he did not sit on that jury....
He’s lucky he’s not need the services of a defense attorney himself. What you described, while maybe something we’d all like to do, is pretty stupid.
Jurors are there to listen to the evidence and render a verdict based on that evidence, not to determine what pleas a defendant can and cannot make.
How can a felon claim temporary insanity in purchasing a gun. Like, oops, I am now temporarily insane; think I’ll go buy a gun. If he was a felon the paperwork would have caught it so then it could only be temporary insanity to try to buy one. Sort of like Hitler should be honored because he killed Hitler and also the guy who killed Hitler.
How can a felon claim temporary insanity in purchasing a gun. Like, oops, I am now temporarily insane; think I’ll go buy a gun. If he was a felon the paperwork would have caught it so then it could only be temporary insanity to try to buy one. Sort of like Hitler should be honored because he killed Hitler and also the guy who killed Hitler.