(A) is correct

Issue: Which statement accurately states the reason why the defendant would be found not guilty by reason of insanity in a jurisdiction that recognizes the Durham test.

Rule: Certain defenses address a defendant’s lack of mental culpability for an offense, which can result in an acquittal. These defenses are insanity, intoxication, and infancy. The M’Naghten rule requires the acquittal of a defendant if she has a (i) mental disease or defect (ii) causing her to have a defect of reasoning so that the defendant lacked the ability at the time of her actions to either (iii) know the wrongful nature of the act or (iv) understand the nature and quality of her act. Under the Durham test, the defendant must prove that the criminal conduct was the product of a mental disease or defect. It requires that the disease actually caused the criminal conduct. Under the irresistible impulse test, it must be shown that the defendant knows right from wrong at the time of the crime but cannot choose between the two. And finally under the Model Penal Code test, it must be shown that at the time of the crime, because of a mental disease or defect, the defendant either does not know right from wrong, or cannot choose right from wrong. Analysis: Here, if the father’s conduct was a result of a mental defect caused him to kick his children out of the car and into the road, then he will have satisfied the Durham test. For comparison – if the jurisdiction instead applied the M’Naghten test, it would have to be shown that the defendant’s disease caused the father to lack the ability at the time of his actions to know the wrongful nature of the act or to understand the nature and quality of what he was doing. Note that the M’Naghten rule is more specific: Under the Durham rule, it is irrelevant whether the father understood the nature and quality of his act when he did it, as long as it can be shown that it was the mental disease that caused the act. The Durham rule casts a broader net than the M’Naghten rule and requires acquittal for anyone who can show that their mental disease caused them to act in the way they did.

(A) is correct because it correctly states the Durham test.

(B) is incorrect because it describes the irresistible impulse test which, under these facts, is not recognized in this jurisdiction.

(C) is incorrect because it states the Model Penal Code test, which again is not the applicable test in this jurisdiction.

(D) is incorrect because it describes the M’Naghten test for insanity