MS · jury_instructions
Proposed Mississippi Plain Language Model Jury Instructions - Criminal 505
Insanity
There is a presumption in the law that the defendant is sane. The burden is on the
defendant to introduce evidence that creates a reasonable doubt as to [his/her] sanity at the time
of the crime. However, once the defendant has created a reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s
sanity, the State has the burden to present sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that the defendant was sane.
To create a reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s sanity at the time of the crime, the
defendant must present evidence which shows that the defendant was suffering from such a
mental defect as (1) not to know the nature of [his/her] act or (2) did not know that [his/her] act
was wrong.
In order to prove that the defendant was sane at the time [he/she] committed the act of
____________ [specify crime charged], the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the
defendant knew the nature of [his/her] act and knew that it was wrong. If after considering all of
the evidence in this case, you find that the State did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the
defendant was sane at the time [he/she] committed the act of ________________ [specify crime
charged], then you shall find the defendant not guilty of _______________ [specify crime
charged] by reason of insanity.
History
Proposed Mississippi Plain Language Model Jury Instructions - Criminal 505 (current as of June 30, 2012). Submitted in 2012 by the Mississippi Model Jury Instructions Commission (created by the Supreme Court of Mississippi by order of December 30, 2008) and published by the Court on courts.ms.gov. The Court states that these model jury instructions have not been adopted or approved by the Supreme Court of Mississippi.
Provenance
- Source
- courts.ms.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-25
- Edition
- 2026-09-25
- Content hash
4b278458c9ff2041819f34e87d10d23afe510d669d95bf26ac5e4b73149396e2
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