This last and most practical reform can be easily secured by a
slight alteration in the New York Code of Criminal Procedure,
which already provides both for the entering of the specific
plea of insanity and for the introduction of the defence and
the proof of insanity under the general plea of "not guilty."
At present the defendant has his choice of openly announcing
or of concealing until the trial his intention of claiming
that he was insane and so irresponsible for his crime. This
is an advantage the results of which were probably not fully
contemplated by the Legislature, and one to which an accused
has no fair claim.
Fortunately, in the same section of the Code (658), which
provides that the court may appoint a Commission to inquire
into the sanity of a defendant at the time of his trial, there
exists another provision, hitherto little noticed, that:
"When a defendant PLEADS INSANITY, as prescribed in Section
336, the court in which the indictment is pending, instead of
proceeding with the trial of the indictment, may appoint a
commission of not more than three disinterested persons to
examine him and report to the court as to his insanity at the
time of the commission of the crime.
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