Because he was deemed "sane" at the time of his acquittal, Steinberg walked out of court a free man.Īfterward, Arizona law was changed, with judges directed to impose "guilty but insane" sentences in cases that would have been dealt with under the previous temporary insanity standard. A jury found Steinberg not guilty on the grounds that he was temporarily insane when he'd killed her. What happened? Here's an excerpt from " A Killer Sleep Disorder," a 1998 article published by the Phoenix New Times, one of Westword's sister papers:Īt trial, his attorney called witnesses to testify that Steinberg may have been sleepwalking or in a short-lived "dissociative" mental state when he stabbed his wife.ĭefense attorney Bob Hirsh alleged that Steinberg's "Jewish American Princess" wife had driven him mad with nagging and spending too much money. The closest corollary to this assertion was the insanity defense. But he claimed to have done so while sleepwalking, which technically meant he wasn't in his right mind at the time. Steven Steinberg Steven Steinberg became the subject of the book Death of a Jewish American Princess, seen above, thanks to a terrible thing he did while living in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1981: He stabbed his wife, Elena, 26 times with a kitchen knife. Sickles was acquitted of the murder, with the verdict allowing him to remain in Congress. And he'd need them, since his claim that he had been driven temporarily insane by his wife's infidelity was untested at the time.īut it worked. Attorney General after the shooting and confessed to the crime, appears to have had much more powerful political pals, including President James Buchanan and Edwin Stanton, who would become President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War. figure, having served as district attorney. The dead man was a prominent Washington, D.C. (He supposedly introduced Fanny to Queen Victoria, too.) But this was nothing compared to the scandal that followed his shooting of Philip Barton Key II, son of "Star Spangled Banner" writer Francis Scott Key, in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, in 1859. Sickles was embroiled in numerous kerfuffles during his time in public life - such as when he had his wrist slapped by legislators for inviting a prostitute named Fanny White into the New York State Assembly.
But today, he's perhaps best remembered as the father of the temporary insanity defense. Check them out below.ĭaniel Sickles History recalls Sickles as a politician, a general for the Union forces and a diplomat.
But the plea has succeeded in a number of high-profile instances - among them the following six, two of which have Colorado ties, including one trial that ended just a year ago.
The legal tactic has been used many times in mass slayings and other shocking crimes, and not always effectively: Note that serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer both claimed insanity but were convicted anyway. One of the central questions in the case of accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes involves whether his attorneys will employ the insanity defense.