Jan 3, 2010

In Cold Blood | Topics for Further Study

Research the evolution of the insanity plea, from the ancient M'Naughten Rule to the Durham Test, the Irresistible Impulse Test, and today's Moral Penal Code. What external political and social forces compel the courts and legislatures to amend insanity plea requirements? What cultural shifts, changing priorities or advances in psychiatry required updating insanity plea legislation? What were the landmark cases which established each new step in its evolution?

Critic Jon Tuttle claims that the influences of Flannery O'Connor on Capote's In Cold Blood are too profound to...