[ceejayoz]

http://law.jrank.org/pages/1136/Excuse-Insanity-Empirical-da...

"Defendants who asserted an insanity defense at trial, and who were ultimately found guilty of their charges, served significantly longer sentences than defendants tried on similar charges who did not assert the insanity defense. Unsuccessful NGRI pleaders are incarcerated for a 22 percent longer time than individuals who never raise the plea."

Citations included there, by the way. For someone demanding citations, you're mainly throwing out "read Szalz!" and citing nothing.

[rqebmm]

There's probably a strong selection bias here though. If one's trying the insanity defense it's either a.) they're insane and really didn't know what was going on, or b.) they have no other defense and are going for a hail mary. People in both camps are very unlikely to receive shortened sentences or early parole.