People v. Serravo

[3]: 622 The court wrote "the phrase 'incapable of distinguishing right from wrong' refers to a person's cognitive ability, due to a mental disease or defect, to distinguish right from wrong as measured by a societal standard of morality... [and] does not refer to a purely personal and subjective standard of morality.

"[3]: 623  The court also examined the relationship between the legal test of insanity and a deific decree, the belief that an act is not wrong because God ordered it.

[3]: 623 Robert Pasqual Serravo [4] was reading his Bible then went upstairs and stabbed his sleeping wife in the back.

[3]: 618  Other defense psychiatrists found that his delusions made him unable to tell right from wrong, in accordance with standards of society.

[3]: 615 Text of People v. Serravo is available from: CourtListener Google Scholar Justia Leagle vLex