Pollard v. United States
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
282 F.2d 450 (1960)
After his wife and daughter were murdered, Marmion Pollard (defendant) grew withdrawn and erratic, eventually attempting to rob three banks and a grocery store; three psychiatrists agreed he suffered a dissociative reaction and acted under an irresistible impulse rooted in severe depression and guilt over the murders, though he understood the robberies were wrong. The district court, relying on lay testimony over the unanimous expert opinion, found Pollard had not acted under an irresistible impulse, and he was convicted.
Whether a defendant is guilty of a crime if he experiences an irresistible impulse to commit it caused by a mental disease, even if he knows the conduct is wrong.