Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

Re: guilty by reason of insanity

Insanity, or temporary insanity, might be an appropriate defense if the sight of your wife in bed with another person caused you to snap and lose your knowledge of, and appreciation for, the nature and consequences of your acts.

One of the two alternative components of the insanity defense centers on the defendant's lack of substantial capacity to know or appreciate "the nature and consequences of such conduct." In a situation, for example, where the defendant is charged with an intentional crime, that culpable mental state requires that the People initially prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant had a "conscious objective" to cause the result or to engage in the conduct defined by the crime. An affirmative defense finding premised on a defendant's lack of a substantial capacity to know or appreciate the "nature and consequences" of the proscribed conduct, would thus imply an initial finding that defendant had a "conscious objective" to cause the result or to engage in the conduct defined by the crime. While these two concepts are "not necessarily inconsistent," they may on the facts of some cases, "overlap" to the extent that it "may be difficult" to support the implied finding that defendant had the requisite "conscious objective" beyond a reasonable doubt; in other words, if the defendant lacked the substantial capacity to know or appreciate the nature and consequences of the conduct involved, it may be "legally impossible" in some cases for the defendant to have formed a conscious objective to cause the result or to engage in the conduct defined by the crime

Remember, without the specific facts of a given case general statements like the one given above are only a guide and not a specific answer to your particular circumstance.