Based off the Tell Tale Heart

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I come before you today to present information that clearly brings to light the innocence of this man. He killed the victim by suffocating him under a mattress. He was clearly insane for he meets these three requirements, he could not distinguish fantasy from reality, he could not tell right from wrong and he could not control his behavior. Your honor, he is legally insane. 

He couldn’t demarcate reality from fantasy. “I could hear sounds I had never heard before. I heard sounds from heaven; and I heard sounds from hell!”. Your honor, he said that he heard bells while talking to the policemen. We talked to the policemen and they reported no such sounds. “His eye was like the eye of a vulture, the eye of one of those terrible birds that watch and wait while an animal dies, and then fall upon the dead body and pull it to pieces to eat it,” . He could not distinguish the sounds of the “bells” from the real sounds in the room, this is insanity. 

The man could not tell right from wrong. “And every morning I went to his room, and with a warm, friendly voice I asked him how he had slept. He could not guess that every night, just at twelve, I looked in at him as he slept.” When he admitted to this, he had no emotion, showing that he did not know that what he did was wrong. “I did not hate the old man; I even loved him. He had never hurt me. I did not want his money.” When the defendant tried to explain, his story showed with disturbing honesty his unaffected conscience by this horrible act. He clearly does not know veracious from erroneous. 

He could not control his behavior. “In the quiet night, in the dark silence of the bedroom my anger became fear — for the heart was beating so loudly that I was sure someone must hear. The time had come!” The defendant shows in this very statement that he thinks that he could not control his actions. “I was suffering more than I could bear, from their smiles, and from that sound. Louder, louder, louder! Suddenly I could bear it no longer. I pointed at the boards and cried, “Yes! Yes, I killed him. Pull up the boards and you shall see! I killed him.”  The defendant cannot control what comes out of his mouth, therefore admitting to the crime.  

This man is guilty of the crime, but he should not be imprisoned for manslaughter. My client should be sent to a mental institution and get him professional help.. He is legally insane. He could not do the following things; distinguish fantasy from reality, tel1 right from wrong and control his behavior. These are the requirements for legally insane, and this man has actualized each one of these requirements with ample evidence. Your Honor, he is legally insane.