Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and poet from Frederick, Maryland, best known as the author of the text of the American national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner". Key observed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814 during the War of 1812. He was inspired upon seeing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn and wrote the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry"; it was published within a week with the suggested tune of the popular song "To Anacreon in Heaven". The song with Key's lyrics became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner" and slowly gained in popularity as an unofficial anthem, finally achieving official status as the national anthem more than a century later under President Herbert Hoover.
The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to a psychiatric disease at the time of the criminal act. This is contrasted with an excuse of provocation, in which the defendant is responsible, but the responsibility is lessened due to a temporary mental state. It is also contrasted with the justification of self defense or with the mitigation of imperfect self-defense. The insanity defense is also contrasted with a finding that a defendant cannot stand trial in a criminal case because a mental disease prevents them from effectively assisting counsel, from a civil finding in trusts and estates where a will is nullified because it was made when a mental disorder prevented a testator from recognizing the natural objects of their bounty, and from involuntary civil commitment to a mental institution, when anyone is found to be gravely disabled or to be a danger to themself or to others.
Harry Kendall Thaw was the son of American coal and railroad baron William Thaw Sr. Heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune, he is most notable for murdering the renowned architect Stanford White in front of hundreds of witnesses at the rooftop theatre of New York City's Madison Square Garden on June 25, 1906.
Charles Julius Guiteau was an American man who assassinated James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, in 1881. Guiteau believed he had played a major role in Garfield's election victory, for which he should have been rewarded with a consulship. He felt frustrated and offended by the Garfield administration's rejections of his applications to serve in Vienna or Paris to such a degree that he decided to kill Garfield and shot him at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. Garfield died 79 days later from infections related to the wounds. In January 1882, Guiteau was sentenced to death for the crime and was hanged five months later.
Edwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. secretary of war under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize the massive military resources of the North and guide the Union to victory. However, he was criticized by many Union generals, who perceived him as overcautious and a micromanager. He also organized the manhunt for Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
Joseph Lyle Menendez and Erik Galen Menendez, commonly referred to as the Menendez brothers, are American brothers convicted of killing their parents, José and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez, at their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
Daniel Edgar Sickles was an American politician, soldier, and diplomat.
Philip Barton Key II was an American lawyer who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He is most famous for his public affair with Teresa Bagioli Sickles, and his eventual murder at the hands of her husband, Congressman Daniel Sickles of New York. Sickles defended himself by adopting a defense of temporary insanity, the first time the defense had been successfully used in the United States.
Winnie Ruth Judd, born Winnie Ruth McKinnell, also known as Marian Lane, was a medical secretary in Phoenix, Arizona, who was accused of murdering her friends, Anne LeRoi and Sarah Samuelson, in October 1931. The murders were discovered when Judd transported the victims' bodies, one of which had been dismembered, from Phoenix to Los Angeles, California, by train in trunks and other luggage, causing the press to name the case the "Trunk Murders". Judd allegedly committed the murders to win over the affections of Jack Halloran, a prominent Phoenix businessman.
Teresa Bagioli Sickles was the wife of Democratic New York State Assemblyman, U.S. Representative, and later U.S. Army Major General Daniel E. Sickles. She gained notoriety in 1859, when her husband murdered her lover, Philip Barton Key II, son of Francis Scott Key. At his trial, Sickles claimed for the first time in United States jurisprudence a defense by temporary insanity. He was acquitted.
George Remus was a German-born American lawyer who was a bootlegger during the early days of Prohibition, and later murdered his wife Imogene.
The 70th New York Infantry Regiment was one of five infantry regiments formed by former U.S. Congressman Daniel Sickles and established as part of the Excelsior Brigade which fought with the Union Army during multiple key engagements of the American Civil War, including the Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Overland campaigns. Leaders from the 70th New York recruited men from New Jersey, as well as from cities and small towns across the State of New York.
The Reverend John Selby Watson was a British classical translator and murderer. He was sentenced to death in 1872 for killing his wife, but a public outcry led to his sentence being reduced to life imprisonment. The case is notable for Watson's use of a plea of insanity as his defence, bringing "the insanity defense into perhaps its greatest prominence since M'Naghten."
Events from the year 1859 in the United States.
Insanity in English law is a defence to criminal charges based on the idea that the defendant was unable to understand what he was doing, or, that he was unable to understand that what he was doing was wrong.
The 72nd New York Infantry Regiment was one of five infantry regiments formed by former U.S. Congressman Daniel Sickles and established as part of the Excelsior Brigade which fought with the Union Army during multiple key engagements of the American Civil War, including the Chancellorsville Campaign in Virginia, the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, and the Overland Campaign. Leaders from the 72nd New York recruited men from New Jersey, as well as from cities and small towns across the State of New York.
Robert Ould was a lawyer who served as a Confederate official during the American Civil War. From 1862 to 1865 he was the Confederate agent of exchange for prisoners of war under the Dix–Hill Cartel. After the war he became a member of the Virginia General Assembly and was later elected president of a railroad company.
James Topham Brady was an American lawyer. Called "one of the most brilliant of all the members of the New York bar", he was born in New York City. Brady studied law in his father's practice before being admitted to the New York bar himself. He is most notable for his career as a criminal lawyer, being involved in numerous high-profile proceedings. He handled fifty-two murder trials and lost only one. Brady died at his home after having suffering two strokes, and was interred in the family vault at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
In 1874, photographer Eadweard Muybridge killed Harry Larkyns in Calistoga, California, believing that Larkyns had seduced Muybridge's wife and fathered the son Muybridge believed was his own. At trial, the jury, disregarding the judge's instructions, returned a verdict of not guilty on the grounds of justifiable homicide.
The amputated right lower leg of Union Army general Daniel Sickles, lost after a cannonball wound suffered at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, is displayed at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
