n. in law, a condition of the mind that renders a person incapable of being responsible for his or her criminal acts. Defendants who are found to be not guilty by reason of insanity therefore lack criminal responsibility for their conduct. Whether a person is insane, in this legal sense, is determined by judges and juries, not psychologists or psychiatrists. Numerous legal standards for determining criminal responsibility, the central issue in an insanity defense, have been used at various times in many jurisdictions. These include the Durham rule, the American Law Institute Model Penal Code insanity test, and the M’Naghten rule. See also partial insanity. —insaneadj.
the process of questioning prospective jurors to determine if they hold biases that may reasonably interfere with their ability to act impartially in a particular trial (from Norman French, literally: “to speak the truth”). The questions may be asked in private or in open court and may be posed by the attorneys, the judge, or both. Jurors may be asked to stand down by a challenge for cause or a peremptory challenge.