Also known as: wrongfulness · wrongful · wrongful act · unlawfulness
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The quality of conduct being contrary to positive law rather than merely contrary to societal morality. This distinction supplies the cognitive element required for criminal responsibility under both the traditional M'Naghten test and the Model Penal Code formulation.
Lorenzo Lugo, suffering from a diagnosed mental disease, broke into a government office and removed classified files. At trial he proved that the disease prevented him from recognizing that the government would treat his taking as a criminal violation. Because he lacked capacity to appreciate the legal wrongfulness of the conduct, the court acquitted him under the M'Naghten rule.
Lillian Locke, afflicted with a mental defect, set fire to an abandoned warehouse believing the act served a higher purpose. Expert testimony established that she could not appreciate that the burning constituted a criminal offense under state law. The jury therefore found she lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the legal wrongfulness of her conduct and returned a verdict of not guilty.
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Liam Larson, suffering from a diagnosed mental disease, broke into a government office and removed classified files. At trial he proved that the disease prevented him from recognizing that the government would treat his taking as a criminal violation. Because he lacked capacity to appreciate the legal wrongfulness of the conduct, the court acquitted him under the M'Naghten rule.
Lila Lin, afflicted with a mental defect, set fire to an abandoned warehouse believing the act served a higher purpose. Expert testimony established that she could not appreciate that the burning constituted a criminal offense under state law. The jury therefore found she lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the legal wrongfulness of her conduct and returned a verdict of not guilty.
Lola Langley, suffering from a diagnosed mental disease, broke into a government office and removed classified files. At trial she proved that the disease prevented her from recognizing that the government would treat her taking as a criminal violation. Because she lacked capacity to appreciate the legal wrongfulness of the conduct, the court acquitted her under the M'Naghten rule.
Layla Lane, afflicted with a mental defect, set fire to an abandoned warehouse believing the act served a higher purpose. Expert testimony established that she could not appreciate that the burning constituted a criminal offense under state law. The jury therefore found she lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the legal wrongfulness of her conduct and returned a verdict of not guilty.
Legal wrongfulness focuses on whether the defendant understood the conduct violated positive law. Moral wrongfulness asks only whether the defendant believed the act was contrary to societal morality. Most jurisdictions following M'Naghten or the Model Penal Code require appreciation of legal wrongfulness for the cognitive prong of the defense.
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No. Under the traditional M'Naghten formulation, a defendant must prove loss of capacity to recognize that society regards the conduct as legally wrongful. A purely moral justification does not satisfy the test if the defendant still understood the act was illegal.
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The Model Penal Code requires that the defendant lack substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality or wrongfulness of the conduct. Courts treat this language as encompassing appreciation of legal wrongfulness, consistent with the M'Naghten approach.
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…generally opposed by the commentators, some States permit the parents of a stillborn child to maintain an action for wrongful death because of prenatal injuries.[^maj-65] Such an action, however, would appear to be one to vindicate the parents' interest and is thus consistent with the view that the fetus, at most,…