[Newspoetry] The Insanity Plea and the Death Penalty

[John Newmark]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/02/11/execution.insanity.ap/index.html

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- In the latest bizarre turn in a nearly
25-year-old death row case, a federal appeals court ruled that a mentally
ill inmate can be put to death even though he would be too insane to qualify
for execution without his medication.
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Perhaps someone here understands this better than me.  Doesn't the "Insanity
Plea" refer to one's state of mind when committing the crime?

This story implies that the convicted criminal has, while in jail, begun
taking medication which makes him "sane" now....and therefore the state
insists he can't use the insanity plea.  I don't see what his state of mind
now has to do with his state of mind then.

Am I missing something?

John
jcnewmark at gavroche.org